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Fresh $78 million Arik debts to IATA uncovered
*Suit against airline confirmed
More revelations have been uncovered of how the old management of Arik Airlines failed to pay the International Air Transport Association $78 million; amount that accrued from debts yet to be settled by the airline for the services that were rendered to it.
The fresh discovery is different from the reported N300b debts AMCON gave recently.
IATA is the clearing house for over 268 global airlines and helps the firms to settle claims, debts through its platform.
Chief Executive Officer of S&T, Simon Tumba and Media Consultant to Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) alleged that the new management of the airline had no record of operations of the airline since 2015, making it difficult to trace its transactions.
The huge indebtedness of the airline perhaps caused albeit the temporary suspension of the carrier from its Billing Settlement Plans (BSP) last week.
IATA Area Manager, South West Africa, Dr, Samson Fatokun in a statement made available to Woleshadare.net disclosed that the airline’s suspension from the IATA financial systems does not affect its IATA membership or IOSA registered status, adding that Arik Air remains a member of IATA and a fully IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registered airline.
His words, “IATA is currently working with the new management of Arik Air to resolve the airline’s suspension from the IATA Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) and Cargo Account Settlement System (CASS).
“The airline’s suspension from the IATA financial systems does not affect its IATA membership or IOSA registered status. Arik Air remains a member of IATA and a fully IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registered airline”, he added.
BSP is a system designed to facilitate and simplify the selling, reporting and remitting procedures of IATA Accredited Passenger Sales Agents, as well as improve financial control and cash flow for BSP Airlines.
A truly worldwide system: there are BSP operations in some 181 countries and territories. The system currently serves approximately 400 participating airlines with an on-time settlement rate of 99.99 per cent. In 2015, IATA’s BSP processed $230.3 billion.
Tumba lamented that the carrier was yet to remit pensions to pension administrator with debts owed to service providers all over the world.
He stated that the new management is focused to reposition the sector, adding that contrary to insinuations that AMCON wants to liquidate the firm, he said, “Nothing is farther from the truth.”
“Arik is very critical to air transport in Nigeria. AMCON wants to manage the airline and return it to profitability. One man used to decide everything. There was no board. Everything rotated from one man.”
He disclosed that management is working with the Federal Government to bring in five aircraft that would aid the airline’s operations in its plans to expand.
He expressed the hope that Arik could still be turned around because it had the capacity to be profitable.
He added that the old management has sued AMCON over the take-over of the company on February 9, 2017.
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