The Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) have threatened to shut down operations of airlines that fail to remit ticket sales charge to key agencies, warning that picketing will commence “any time from now” without further notice.
This was announced by the aviation unions in a statement on Tuesday following the expiry of a 7-day ultimatum on Monday, August 3.
The ultimatum followed a previous 14-day notice issued to defaulting airlines over failure to remit the statutory 5% levy levied on passengers on behalf of aviation agencies.
The unions, in a joint statement signed by ATSSSAN General Secretary, Comrade Frances Akinjole and NUATE Deputy General Secretary, Comrade Odinaka Igbokwe, reiterated that the controversial ticket sales charge was meant for the smooth running of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet).
“Because they are adamant to yield to our calls: It has become crystal clear that these airlines that collected this money from the passengers on behalf the aviation agencies have decided to siphon the fund to the detriment of our collective safety and well-being,” the notice partly reads.
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The unions said “the pilfering airlines are un-fit to remain in our sky being serviced by genuine and patriotic efforts of other sincerely responsible operators in the industry.”
The unions said they were acting to protect safety and workers welfare and said they “ have decided to stop the operations of the cancerous airlines in our airports any time from now without further notice.”
The notice was sent to the media, all defaulting airlines, Nigerian police divisions in all Nigerian airports, Department of State Services (DSS) and the general public.
The ticket sales charge is a statutory fee paid by passengers and collected by airlines and is intended to be remitted to aviation agencies to fund safety, navigation, training and regulatory services.
