Indigenous airlines in the country under the auspices of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) have denied the claim by Smart Adeyemi, a senator, that they are cutting corners in order to remain in business.
The body, in a statement by Abdulmunaf Yunusa, its president, said the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the reluctance of the Federal Government to release the bailout funds to augment its operations affected its service, insisting it would not engage in any sharp practices to remain in business.
Yunusa stated categorically that there was no iota of truth in the statement, emphasising that domestic airlines never cut corners in their operations.
“Nigerian airlines have not cut corners, do not cut corners and will never cut corners. We want to believe that the distinguished senator was misunderstood and quoted out of context because there is never any available fact supporting such a conclusion,” Yunusa said.
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“In most of the media reports, the senator was quoted as pleading with the government to stop the Customs department from re-introducing the payment of duties and Value Added Tax (VAT) on the importation of commercial aircraft, commercial aircraft spares and engines,” he said.
Yunusa quoted the senator to have noted that the reintroduction was flagrant disobedience of the Executive Order by President Muhammadu Buhari granting zero duty and zero VAT on the importation of commercial aircraft, aircraft spares and aircraft engines and that such decision by the Customs could make the airlines to start cutting corners because of their inability to clear their spares from the Customs.
He reiterated that no Nigerian airline would compromise safety under any circumstance, maintaining that if the burden of running a business becomes unbearable as a result of the Customs duties and VAT, they would rather shut down and suspend operations.
He insisted that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) was alive to its duties of oversight of the airlines and would never allow safety to be compromised in the system.
“Nigerian airlines, as a result of the stringent safety regime being run by the NCAA, are the safest in the world,” he said.
Reports on Monday had claimed that Adeyemi had warned that Nigeria’s aviation industry was in critical condition and might soon begin to record plane crashes if quick action such as increased bailout was not implemented.
He was quoted to have said that the industry was in need of immediate implementation of Executive Orders mandating the Nigerian Customs Service to waive taxes on imported spare parts and commercial airlines.
The lawmaker also noted that the N4 billion recently announced as bailout fund for the industry by the Federal Government was not enough to address the challenges of the industry.
