Senate stops $3,000 charge on private jet operators

The Senate Committee on Aviation on Monday asked the Nigerian Airspace
Management Agency to suspend the recent charges it imposed on local
and foreign registered private airline operators, on non-scheduled
flights in Nigeria.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Hope Uzodinma, gave
the advice during a tripartite meeting held with NAMA management and
private aircraft operators on non scheduled flights.
He also asked NAMA to immediately convey a stakeholders meeting in
collaboration with the Ministry of Aviation for the purpose of
consulting with the operators and adopt a levy that would be mutually
acceptable to all parties.
NAMA had recently introduced a new a pay-as-you-go charge, whereby
foreign registered airline operators were expected to pay a flat levy
of $3, 000 while their indigenous counterparts were levied $2, 000 on
each flight embarked upon by their aircraft.
Our correspondent learnt that before the new levy, the operators were
charged based on their routes, navigational terminal and weight of
their aircraft and the various amounts were paid to different aviation
agencies operating at the nation's airports.
Spokesperson for the private airlines operators on non-scheduled
flights in Nigeria, Alhaji Bala Na'allah, had described the new levies
introduced by NAMA as discriminatory because the arrangement was not
applicable to airline operators on scheduled flights.
Na'allah agreed that the Civil Aviation Act 2006 section 30 (2) gives
power to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to impose levies but
argued that such levies should not be imposed without adequate
consultations with relevant stakeholders.