Foreign airlines stop royalty payment to Nigeria

Foreign airlines, which operate into Nigeria under the principle of reciprocity under the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) have stopped paying royalty to the country, woleshadare.net has learnt.
Former Director General, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren, disclosed this to our correspondent in Lagos.

In the past, foreign carriers, which monopolised Nigerian routes, occasioned by the inability of Nigerian airlines to ameliorate the impact of the imbalance in the air pact, paid some monies to the Federal Government via the Ministry of Aviation.
Demuren regretted that even the royalties and taxes that were levied on the foreign airlines because of the inability of the country to favourably compete in the BASA deal were removed due to political reasons, which, he said, was killing the country and the aviation industry.
The former director general said it was the accumulation of the Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) royalties and charges that constitute the BASA funds that was domiciled in NCAA.
He noted that many years ago, foreign airlines used to pay $180 to Nigerian Airways per passenger for extra frequencies into the country.
“It is good politics to sign BASA agreement, but most of the times, it is bad politics, because Nigeria is not really fit to compete with the other countries.
“Again, when Nigerian Airways was still operational, we could say that we did compete a little.
But right now that we cannot compete effectively, government still went ahead to cancel the royalties and taxes. So, we don’t even get anything from BASA fund,” he said.
Similarly, former Director of Operations, Nigerian Airways, Captain Prekemi Porbeni, added that getting foreign airlines to come into Nigeria without any reciprocity was unacceptable. He said:
“The local airline should be implored to take part in it. We did it before. Even we can use the equipment of the foreign airline to do the same flight when it is using frequency; it is an indirect co-share.”
Also, the former Managing Director of Nigeria Airways, Mr. Andrew Okunuga, advised Nigeria not to spend so much energy on frequency allocation, but on what would favour Nigeria.
He stated that BASA should not be discussed in isolation, adding that the agreement include joint venture, code share and others.
Okunuga added that the Federal Government should encourage Nigerian domestic airlines to make them international players in the aviation market.
The former Nigerian Airways’ managing director said that Arik Air and Medview Airlines should have been present when the latest BASA was signed between Qatar and the Federal Ministry of Aviation.
On how to make domestic airlines survive, he noted that “one man business mentality” was not helping the operators.

Wole Shadare