Nigerian Flight Deck Travel and Business Reportage
AN aviation stakeholder and member of industry think tank group, Aviation Round Table (ART), Group Captain John Ojikutu (RTD) has said that the dispute between the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) is resolvable without resorting to spending monies on external auditors.
Reacting to the recent release by the AON secretariat calling for an independent Auditing firm at its own expense to audit NCAA as an organization and the N15bn NCAA claims, Ojikutu said although he agrees that the remittance of the TSC cannot be fixed by the proposed automation but stated categorically that the amount cannot be based on aircraft on airlines fleet as stated by the AON , but passengers airlifted.
The AON had stated that they (Airlines) don’t pay monthly fixed rate. The rate is a percentage of the fare paid further querying how can an airline like Arik Air with 27 airplanes have a fixed monthly remittance rate of N61,477,779.69 and Air Peace with an average of 5 airplanes to pay N109,862,633.84 monthly.
Captain Ojikutu however advised the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) not to spend monies it does not have.
He said, “I don’t think there should be too much dispute in recovering the airlines debts on the TSC. While I would agree that the TSC monthly remittances cannot be fixed if the collection is by automation, it can also not be based on the number of aircraft in the airline fleet. In the absence of electronic automation, it could be based on the average number of passengers airlifted per month. “
“For instance, if an airline is known to be carrying an average of 30,000 per month and each passenger pays agreed average fare of N15,000, in the absence of automation, that translate to ticket sale of N450m per month; therefore, average TSC of 5% expected from such airline monthly cannot be less than N22.5m. This to me is transparent with common sense and does not need any external auditor who would take away the money the AON does not have now,” He said in a message to Nigerianflightdeck.
The AON in its earlier statement offered to pay for an independent Auditing firm at its own expense; such as KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, or Deloitte and Touché, to audit NCAA as an organization, and the N15bn NCAA claims airlines owe and urged the regulatory body to take advantage of this offer and open its books for this Audit to take place
