NCAA’s no pay, no service will kill airlines-Aero Contractors MD
By Chukwuemeke Iwelunmo
The managing director of Aero Contractors, Capt Ado Sanusi says no pay, no service to be introduced by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) will kill domestic airlines
Sanusi, in an extensive interview in his office, said mul
tiple taxes introduced in the sector for airlines saying that when airlines were denied start up, only few will survive
“So when you say that no pay, no services, it’s another misfortune for the airline. Yes. Some people say it’s too harsh. It’s another misfortune for the airline. Some airlines will survive. Some airlines will fail”.
He noted that at the end the airlines will run back to the government for intervention funds as it was done in 2006 and 2007.
Sanusi, who recalled that he never new that he was killing the airlines years ago as the Managing Director of NAMA when he introduced the pay as you go, declared, “because I now know that what I was doing when I was in NAMA was killing the airlines, actually. If I say I will not give you startup till you pay me, I’m actually killing them. Okay, now if I look at also on the other side, the parastatals can’t survive. So that means it’s a vicious cycle. There must be something to break it”
He noted that the paraststals cannot survive with the taxation from the airlines and must unbundled and will definitely help the industry
Sanusi called for the commercialise NAMA as it was done in other countries adding NAMA was on cost recovery adding that board of NAMA should decide on the money to be paid by airlines as charges with approval from NCAA
The Aero contractors boss further called on the NCAA to be funded separately and funded well in a way that it can attract the best hands in the industry to come and work there.
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“Now if you can pay a footballer a very huge amount of money to play for your country, to score a goal, why can’t you pay an inspector that will save a life the good money that he will do? If you can pay a foreign coach to come and coach your team to win the World Cup, why can’t you pay the Civil Aviation Authority good money to bring good people so that they can save lives, avoid accidents, and have a strong Civil Aviation Authority and a vibrant aviation industry in general?”
According to Sanusi, the moment the NCAA was respected Civil Aviation Authority worldwide, the aviation industry will be vibrant as people will bring their airplanes while continuous airworthiness will be guaranteed
“Your second-hand value of aircraft that are registered in Nigeria will not fall, your insurance premium will go down, and everything will fall in place, and you will see that even people to come and invest in built-in airports will come, people to invest in”.
