Need to Take AGHAN Threat to Aviation Sector Seriously

Chinedu Eze

Aviation Ground Handling Association of Nigeria (AGHAN) has threatened that it may embark on indefinite action starting from today if the National Assembly does not withdraw its suspension order on the implementation of new handing service rates approved by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

Recently, NCAA gave the approval to the ground handling companies in the country to increase the new safety threshold handling rates after 36 years with commencement dates slated for October 1, 2021 (for international) and January 1, 2022 (for local) operators, but the House Committee on Aviation directed it to stop the implementation forthwith.
Industry stakeholders have warned that the Senate and House Committees on Aviation should urgently attend to this issue because if the handling companies are allowed to embark on indefinite strike it would paralyse flight and cargo operations at the airports all over the country.

THISDAY learnt that the new rates being charged are the same with what obtains in other West African countries like Ghana, Senegal and others.
With the new rates, the handlers could charge between $1,500 and $5,000 (passenger and cargo flights) for narrow and wide body aircraft on international routes, respectively, while for domestic operators it was upped to N20, 000 and N70, 000, depending on the aircraft type.

Also with the approval, the ground handling companies in Nigeria; the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) Plc, the Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) Plc, Precision Aviation Handling Company Limited (PAHCOL) and the Swissport Handling Company, were expected to charge the same handling rates as their counterparts in the sub-African countries.

Reacting to the development, the Director, Research, Zenith Travels, Olumide Ohunayo, said that the National Assembly might be interfering in NCAA oversight functions.
“I think the National Assembly should back off from interfering with the decisions taken by the regulator of the industry. This will not augur well for us. We cherish our achievements on the safety level, based on the prowess of our regulator and the ability to sustain it over the years and that has made them to retain all international certifications from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)

“We do not want all these to be jeopardised or ridiculed by interference in the decisions taken by the regulator. This is never done and never accepted. The world is watching us. So, we appeal to the House Committee on Aviation and Senate Committee to back off from the decisions taken by NCAA with respect to the industry. Rather, all they can do is to advice or raise a resolution and pass it across to the regulator or ask other industry players to speak on such issues instead of interfering directly on such issues,” he said.

Ohunayo said political interference would make Nigeria lose face in the comity of nations, principally with the regulator.
“We might be seen as a country, which doesn’t follow standards and recommended practices of ICAO and as applied in other climes. So, I think the government should allow the regulator to do its job without any form of interference from the House of Reps Committee and its Senate counterpart. This will not help us with the safety applications that we have been pushing up. This is an industry that came up from the crisis safety management and had improved on safety and assiduously improving the commercial part. We have done very well in safety, but the commercial aspect is still a problem. That is what is going to be our contribution to the GDP – the viability of our airlines; allied companies have been very poor because we have not been able to step up the commercial aspect,” he added.

Speaking in similar vein, the CEO, Centurion Security Services and General Secretary of Aviation Round Table (ART), an industry think-tank, Group Captain John Ojikutu (retd), said that what the NCAA did was the oversight right given to it by the provisions of the economic regulations in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulation (Nig CARs) Part 18 on all operators – government or private and allied services.

He said that the handling rates approved for the ground handling companies are not different from similar provisions for the airlines fare tariff.
“Unfortunately, it has not been known if any airline has ever applied for fare increase. The Nig.CARs is a legal authority of the NASS to the NCAA to perform the functions of regulating service rates and fare charges. None of the NASS chambers can interfere in the law it has legislated on except the Court. The problem of our legislators is that they have no sufficient knowledge of how the laws they made work for the purpose they were meant to serve.

“Political interference has been some form of deterrence in the progress of our economic sector and has caused the defunct or the downfalls of most Nigerian airlines, including the Nigeria Airways. Political actors in and out of government often ask for debts concessions or government intervention funds for private operators and sometimes government services providers where they have personal and individual interests,” he said.
Ojikutu also noted that the problem was not much with the implementation of the new rates by the companies, but the multiple layers of agencies charges at in the airports, adding that the increase is justifiable.

“I think we need to advise the NASS members of the aviation committees to have copies of the CAA and Regulations, which they promulgated, read them to know where they have powers in them before they exercise those powers; can they promulgate a judicial law or Act and begin exercising the executive powers in the law? They need to decide on which sides of the divides they want to be and move there; not a bird and rat at the same time,” he said.