The Air Transport Licence (ATL) of Azman Air has been suspended over the failed remittance of its Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) from passengers, amounting at N1.2 billion.
This was disclosed by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Director-General of NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu made this known in a statement issued in Lagos on Thursday.
The aviation regulator stated that failure to remit the charges was also accompanied by a failure to also submit security clearance for the renewal of its ATL, which expired in April 2021.
What the NCAA is saying
The NCAA chief stated that the N1.2 billion debt is the revenue accrued from the 5% Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) and Cargo Sales Charge (CSC) collected from the air travellers by the airline, which is shared between NCAA and other aviation regulators. The NCAA gets 58% of the total 5% of TSC/CSC and it is the major revenue earning for the agency.
The NCAA boss said that any airline that owes the charge would also lose its Air Transport Licence (ATL).
He warned that NCAA has made several attempts to recover the debt, citing that Azman Air “was recalcitrant in paying back the sum despite collecting it from the passengers.”
He also noted that it held a series of meetings with Azman Air leadership on how to pay back the debt, but both parties failed to reach an agreement. He said that the airline’s management had promised to pay back the sum of N10 million monthly as part of the N1.2 billion debt, but said the regulatory body insisted on N50million monthly.
- “We didn’t suspend Azman Air’s Airline Operator certificate, but suspended their ATL, which had earlier expired.
- ”The ATL earlier expired in April 2021, but we gave the airline extension because of the disruption to aviation activities by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- “This was what we did for other airlines, too. However, we wrote a reminder letter to the airline six months to the new expiring date, which is statutory.
- “Later, the airline requested for another extension of 90 days, but we only granted it 60 days.
- ”At the expiration of the 60 days, we also gave it 30 days reminder, which elapsed on Wednesday night, yet nothing was done by the airline.”
Nuhu said that the airline owed us N1.2 billion as TSC/CSC, and invited them and set up a committee for that purpose.
- “They later came up to N20 million, but we insisted on N50 million monthly.
- ”If we had agreed to the N10 million monthly, it means it will take them about 12 years to repay back the money it had already collected and by then, the money would have lost.”
In case you missed it
Nairametrics reported yesterday that there was chaos at Nigeria’s airports after the NCAA suspended Azman Air’s operating license following a failure to submit security clearance for the renewal of its ATL
