International Air Transport
Association
The decision of the Ministry of Aviation to
scrap the payments of royalties from Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) in
response to the request of the International Air Transport Association (IATA),
has cost the federal government about N50.4 billion between 2014 and now.
BASA funds are paid by airlines that operate into
countries that do not have corresponding airlines that fly the same number of
frequencies to the home of the other operators. And an offshoot of Bilateral
Agreement is commercial agreement which in many other nations is negotiated by
the national airline with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
THISDAY learnt that European carriers championed
the campaign for the abrogation of payment of royalties through IATA.
However, while other countries were still studying the request, Nigeria hastily
adopted the policy. Consequently, over 30 foreign carriers that operate into
Nigeria do not pay royalties to government.
According to authoritative source from the
Ministry of Aviation, the ministry which quickly spearheaded the scrapping of
BASA funds did not introduce slot allocation as an alternative and which would
have yielded more revenues to government. The source added that while Nigeria
had since scrapped the payment of royalties, other countries still collect same
from airlines that operate to their cities.
The source said that the decision was
self-serving and was never done in the interest of the country, saying that
rather some airlines might influenced selfish interests of officials in the
Ministry of Aviation to quickly adopt the policy which deadline had not been
given.
“Since the scrapping of payment of royalties
there has not been any directive about what to do next. This will be handled by
the Ministry of Aviation because it was the ministry that removed the payments,
although in other countries it is the Civil Aviation Authority that negotiates
BASA and frequencies with representatives of other countries. It is a peculiar
situation in Nigeria that the Ministry has to do all these things,” the source
said.
The source noted that since the scrapping of BASA
funds there has been funding gaps because “we do not go to their countries,they
come. We don’t have the capacity to operate international destinations, but the
decision was taken too quickly by the Ministry of Aviation. Overseas, you deal
with CAAs. It is even our officials that fly to those countries and negotiate
when we do not have our airlines to benefit from it. They should have come here
to negotiate with us, which is the way it is done elsewhere.”
The Executive Chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Captain Nogie Meggison had attributed the decision to scrap the BASA payment by the Ministry of Aviation to the many bad policies that had held the aviation industry down
“Till you correct that policy you cannot continue
to chase the wrong end of the stick, you have to treat the fire and not the
smoke. So capital flight is not our issue, foreign carriers coming to dominate
our markets and weakening the local players is not the issue. The issue really
should be the policy that is on ground. That is why I want the present
government, and I encourage them to look at the policy governing aviation today.
To start with, the BASA that governs our policy should be reviewed. Yes it is
being signed by the external affairs but BASA is a trade treaty that should be
taken seriously,” Meggison said.
Culled from Thisdaylive.com
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