Azman Air has fallen into the dragnet of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) as its flight operations has been halted over indebtedness to the tune of N1.2billion.
The debts accrue from the non- remittance of Passenger Service Charge, PSC and Cargo Service Charge, CSC belonging to the NCAA collected its behalf by the airlines.
Due to this development, NCAA suspended Azman Air Transport Licence (ATL).
The suspension of the airline’s ATL rendered its Air Operator Certificate (AOC) invalid and investigation revealed that the certificate had also expired.
Another offence by the airline according to the regulatory agency is failure to submit security clearance for the renewal of its ATL, which expired in April 2021.
In a chat with newsmen, the NCAA Director General, Capt. Musa Nuhu explained that, the TSC/CSC is shared among five aviation agencies; NCAA, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria.
Capt. Nuhu also said, the Federal Government share from this as the NCAA remits 25% into the Federation account.
The money is also part of its Internally Generated Revenue, IGR and NCAA gets 58 per from the total 5 per cent of TSC/CSC and it is the major revenue earning for the agency, while the other four agencies share the remaining 42 per cent.
“We didn’t suspend Azman Air’s AOC, 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 Cocid-19 pandemic, just as 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.
Capt. Nuhu threatened that the ATL or AOC of any other airline that owed the agency 5 per cent TSC/CSC would not be renewed henceforth and appealed to other carriers to pay up the backlog debts.
Efforts made to recoup the N1.2billion
Azman commenced scheduled operations in 2014.
Capt Nuhu, the NCAA had made several efforts to recover the debt from the airline over the years, but the carrier was recalcitrant in paying back the sum despite collecting it from the passengers.
He stated that, the management had held series of meeting with Azman Air leadership on how to pay back the debt, but both parties failed to reach an agreement.
For instance, he explained that the management of the airline 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 N50 million monthly from the airline.
Besides, he emphasised that the airline could not provide its security clearance, which is one of the prerequisites requirements for renewal of ATL.
“Later, the airline requested for another extension of 90 days, but we only granted it 60 days and 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.
“Besides, the airline owed us N1.2 billion as TSC/CSC. We invited them, set up a committee for that purpose. Azman said they would pay the sum of N10 million monthly out of the debt, which we refused. They later came up to N20 million, but we insist on N50 million monthly. If we had agreed 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.”
