Allen Onyema, the chairman of Air Peace, has warned that Nigeria’s aviation industry is facing an existential crisis, stating that several domestic airlines would fail within the next 30 days if urgent steps are not made to solve the difficulties affecting operators. History
Speaking on the sidelines of the presentation of Pathways, Pilgrimage and Destiny, biography of the Med-View Airline Chairman, Muneer Bankole, Onyema said.
The Air Peace chairman said the controversy surrounding the repatriation of the five per cent Ticket and Cargo Sales Charge (TSC) was not about airlines’ failure to pay statutory levies, but the difficulty imposed by the current collecting mechanism, Channels TV reports.
He urged government and airline companies to work together to come up with a more workable revenue collection mechanism, possibly a fixed unit price, that would remove arguments about what should be included in the airfares to be charged.
Onyema also blasted plans by labour unions to picket airlines over the disagreement, describing the approach as unusual and an attempt to frighten the operators.
He said airlines have always been in touch with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Federal Ministry of Aviation and there was no issue with labour unions in the industry. Chronicle
He said Nigerian airlines were operating under very hard conditions with high cost of financing, limited infrastructure, bird strikes, various operating charges that are jeopardising their viability.
He said over 50 Nigerian airlines had gone under over the years even while their owners succeeded in other areas, calling on the federal government to quickly intervene to save Nigerian airlines from future collapse.
He said he was confident that President Bola Tinubu still supports the indigenous carriers and will not allow the business to collapse.
The Air Peace chairman asked for policies that would strengthen, not undermine domestic airlines and secure the viability of the aviation sector.
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