GAT:FAAN GOT IT WRONG AGAIN

The recent directive of FAAN is puzzling and dictatorial, considering these airlines have tenancy and operational agreements with FAAN, also operational issues are not with immediate effect as directed, they are well planned with both parties coming to an agreement that will give the least operational and disruption cost.

I just hope the directive is not sequel to the recent reconciliatory and interactive session of ICRC board in Lagos. That is a body saddled with the responsibility of monitoring and regulating concession agreements, which definitely cannot bite due to the delay in amending the ICRC Act; it has also lost the barking prowess to the house and senate committee on aviation respectively.

It was also alleged that some of those carriers board and park their aircraft at MM2, while they only sell tickets at GAT, in a nut shell generating revenue for Bi-courtey through and at the expense of FAAN owned ,GAT. Well, that brand of marketing is not new to the industry, it’s an age long marketing strategy employed by the local carriers. It’s not a bad idea provided they pay for those counters; FAAN can only refuse to rent out the counters at the expiration of their tenancy not using the forceful eviction mode.

It is also a sad realization that all concessions in the industry have been very messy which is a reflection of the process from begining, therefore all parties must be humble enough to accept that at a point in the concession process fairness and transparency which is the hallmark of an efficient concession process was breached.

We have come to the realisation that the managers of FAAN and the Ministry at the period, when these concessions were signed, compromised and also exhibited little knowledge of the legal booby traps in the agreement, which has come to haunt us now, like the Virgin Nigeria agreement, when an Honourable Minister dozily signed an addendum to the agreement, that was drafted in London on a Virgin Atlantic letter head.

The industry needs to move forward and all parties must be ready to shift ground and negotiate, looking for legal interpretation will give the concessionaires a tarred highway at the expense of a continuous sabotage from stakeholders and "under the table" concessionaires. If they refuse to shift ground or negotiate, then the entire industry “will be caught right dead fighting for their right of way".

Curiously, why was Arik a private carrier without any form of public participation excluded from the decree issued by FAAN ruling council to other privately owned carriers? Was it due to a pending court case, instituted by Arik? Or is it an attempt to surreptitiously hand over the GAT terminal to them? Whichever way fairness and transparency must be paramount or the attempt will join the industry's ever increasing messy concession statistics.

NON REMITTANCES OF TAXES AND CHARGES

on all tickets paper or paperless, it is clearly stated that this taxes or charges are owned by the different agencies, though collected on their behalf as obtained in other climes, the only difference is while in other climes the taxes and charges are remitted regularly or on agreed terms, in Nigeria the reverse is the case. We love "playing with other people's money", thereafter they will run to the ministry, presidency, e.t.c for protection and intervention when its time to pay up. The presidency should realise their intervention is clear case of robbing peter to pay Paul.


FAAN and related organisations must work out modalities of getting these charges as quickly as possible; in fact before the aircraft departs will not be a bad idea due to the embarrassing backlog. The action will inadvertently aid the efficient management of our airlines as they will be saddled with the responsibility using revenue generated from sales, loans while also working assiduously towards improving revenue form other ancillary options.

We should also understand that the airline industry is usually funded and dependent on loans to meet immediate and future operational targets while revenue generated are used to service these loans, run operational expenses and also act as necessary liquidity in an adverse period. If taxes and charges are to be used at all it is temporal with clear understanding of other parties.


The airlines should pay for their services and should equally demand for compensations when the service providers’ actions or in-actions affect or slows down their operations. The BAA chief executive Colin Matthews instigated an inquiry into the airport shutdown last month. He also agreed to forgo his annual bonus during the public outcry that culminated in flight delays and Virgin Atlantic was even bold enough to announce that it will hold BAA charges in his possession until a form of compensation was worked out.

It is a lesson for us all to be bold enough to accept responsibility and listen to public outcry. the agencies should also consider reducing their present charges which is not reflective of market realities while also waiving a certain percentage of these charges or taxes collected by the airlines, just as they have done with concessionaires, EFCC and other debt retrieving partners.