We paid N4bn to FAAN in 2014 – Arik Air

By LOUIS IBA
Indigenous carrier, Arik Air, has denied allega­tions by the Federal Airports Authority of Nige­ria (FAAN) that it has con­sistently refused to honour its financial obligations of paying statutory fees and charges for services enjoyed at the Federal Government airports.
The crisis took an ugly twist Thursday last week when FAAN had to disrupt Arik operations at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, in protest over debts estimated at over N1.2billion owed by the airline. FAAN denied the airline’s staff access to their duty post making it im­possible to process passengers for departures out of Abuja.
Daily Sun learnt that, at the instance of the Minister of Aviation, officials of the Fed­eral Ministry of Aviation and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) are inter­vening to find a lasting solution to the crisis.
A highly placed official of Arik Air who spoke to Daily Sun said , while the relation­ship between FAAN and Arik Air has not been smooth in the last two years, it was, however, erroneous for FAAN to claim that the airline was indebted to it to about N1.2billion.
The official, who preferred to remain anonymous and who gave out some data containing financial transactions between the two establishments, noted that, last year alone, Arik Air paid FAAN close to N4billion for services it was getting at the airports. He said the data had also been made available to the regulatory agencies and avia­tion ministry officials investi­gating the case.
“It is very untrue that Arik Air has not been making pay­ments to FAAN, that cannot be correct although we have been having some issues,” said the official.
“Remember FAAN claimed that we dIdn’t pay parking and landing fees. But we paid FAAN about N4billion in 2014. And this figure includes parking and landing fees, rent, passenger service charge (PSC), fuel surcharge
“Let me even show a little breakdown of this payment data. In Jan 2014 Arik Air paid N335, 562,212.50; April N370, 417,622.50; Sept N344, 486, 305; and Dec N447, 232,602.50.
“In the same 2014, we paid N318, 575,002.50 in Feb; N327, 359,180 in March; N349, 471,655 in June; N315, 530,737.50 in July. The total amount paid FAAN in 2014 was N3, 941,023,995. This is contrary to the claim that Arik has not been paying its bills,” he added.
Aside FAAN, the Nige­rian Airspace Management Agency, and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) are equally owed by some op­erating airlines. The trend has compelled government to or­der AMCON to take over the management of some of the ailing or debt ridden airlines.
Some of the factors rais­ing operational cost and erod­ing profit margins of airlines include, high cost of aviation fuel, multiple taxes at the airports from various regula­tory agencies, high premium charges by insurance firms, ex­orbitant cost of maintenance of aircraft abroad due to the crash in the value of the naira against the dollar, and the high interest rates from creditor banks.

Source: Sun News
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