Aviation Unions’ Picketing Threat: AON Seeks More Clarity

The Vice President of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Dr. Allen Onyema has sought some more clarity on the on-going controversy over Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) remittances, which had resulted in an ultimatum and eventual airlines’ picketing threat from workers unions in the aviation industry.

Speaking yesterday on the issue, he said airlines have even before the enactment of this, been complaining that the pressure on airlines are hurting airlines.

“It’s not only five percent. There are other charges and we pay for everything we do. There are other charges. So, if nobody listened to us and went in and did whatever they did, how do you expect airlines to survive here? I think we need even clarity because sometimes, you see airlines arguing with, no, it’s not up to this amount. It’s up to this amount. It’s not up to this amount. Maybe we should think of solution to bring this to an end. Airlines do not want to owe.

We don’t want to owe. Maybe there should be a solution on how to go about making it work for everybody. You might think of a unit cost so that you even announce it that to everybody using the Nigerian airline to fly anywhere, this is a unit cost.

Maybe N2,000. If you like, make it N50,000. But let, people know. Let passengers know that there’s N50,000 for them to pay. When you do this percentage, you start now asking questions. Which one should be taxed? Which one should represent five percent? So, there’s a lot of confusion that nobody’s talking about.

These are the issues happening. Which part of the, maybe you ask passengers to pay N200,000. Which part of it is to be taxed? There are some other deductions here and there.

So, it’s fraught with so much confusion. We are not against the airlines. We are not against helping women generate revenue; but no airline in the world, in other climes, are taxed directly for revenue. The airlines indirectly provide revenue for government. And the president, we know, will not want Nigerian airlines to go down. That I can tell you for sure. He does not know what is happening now.”

He further said “going into aviation is not a piece of cake. It is an industry that is not very rewarding. It is capital intensive. Yet, less rewarding. Today, we are facing a phase that has existential threats except something drastic is done very quickly within the next 30 days, a lot of airlines might go extinct.”