NCAA rakes in N15.17B from taxes, charges in 8 months
- Air traffic up by 2.4 million
- Ethiopian tops int’l air traffic figure
The new automation of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) revenue is yielding dividends as the aviation regulatory body said it recorded $16.98 million from Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) from international airlines and N9.16 billion from local airlines between the months of January and August this year.
There are indications that the NCAA could double its revenue on TSC before the end of the year as passenger traffic goes high.
The NCAA depends solely on the five per cent charges as its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and does not take money from the Federal Government to carry out its operations.
The new platform was meant to deduct at source the five per cent Ticket and Cargo Sales Charges (TSC) accruing to the NCAA. Airlines had severally disputed debts owed to different aviation agencies, most times accusing NCAA of falsifying debts they did not owe.
The carriers had challenged the aviation regulatory body to break the figures down with the NCAA unable to clearly show exactly what the carriers owed which was put at N17 billion.
Recently, at the presentation of the signed automation agreement at the NCAA headquarters, Director General, NCAA, Captain Muktar Usman, said the deduction was in line with the provision of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs).
Director General, NCAA Captain Muktar Usman in a chat with newsmen in Lagos today said air travel demand as projected by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) would continue to grow with more connectivity.
He added that the second position of Africa in the region in the July 2018 passenger traffic of 6.8 per cent increase can be surpassed with direct link in the continent.
His words, “There has always been that projection that aviation in Africa is growing and the rate of growth is one of the highest in the world. We lack that internal connectivity within the Africa region and once those sectors are developed you would see much more increase in the movements because for example, if you want to go to Niger as of today, you hardly have any direct link even though airlines have been designated”.
“One of the ways of going there, is to go to Lome and then go to Niamey, when from Abuja it shouldn’t be more than one hour but you spend a whole day and off course and as a lot of cost you have to go to Lome through Asky and maybe take you either direct to Niamey or when they are coming back they go through Burkina Faso and so on”, he added.
“But once we start having this connectivity direct, the cost would also be expected to reduce and then more people would be able to afford to fly, so it is expected that the increase would continue”.
Statistics released by the regulatory agency reveals that passenger traffic in the last eight months has increased by 2.4 million.
International passenger traffic from January-August show that ten of the airlines are carrying the major passenger traffic with Ethiopian airline taking the lead with 134.104, followed by Emirates with 107.217, British Airways, 86.249 and Turkish airlines,70.392 passengers.
Others are Air France, 70.144, KLM Royal Dutch, 63.990, Virgin Atlantic 63.448, Delta airline,39.196, Qatar, 38.706 and South African Airways, 36.868 passengers. For Domestic passenger Traffic, 7 airlines are pulling their weight with Air Peace in the forefront with over 340.664, with Dana Air trailing with 330.370, AZMAN, 245.437 and Arik, 177.061 passengers.
Others are; Medview, 156.226, Aero, 138.146 and Overland, 78.166 passengers.
The NCAA DG said, there has been boost in travel activities since the country came out of recession and more is expected in the coming days and months.
“Yes certainly, its going up, don’t forget that we came out of recession, during the recession so may things happened, now the economy is out of recession a lot of activities that’s commercial activities and so on, so people are being more empowered in terms of this movement, we should expect even more”.
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