Sequel to the approval granted by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on the new price regime, the five ground handling companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to guard against economic sabotage among members.
The five handling companies are the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) Plc, Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) Plc, Aviation Handling Service (AHS), Butake Resources Ltd (BRL) and Swissport Nigeria.
The joint communiqué was signed by Mr Olumuyiwa Olumekun; the Ag. CEO NAHCO, Mr Basil Agboarumi, CEO, SAHCO, Mr Samuel Oluwole, Director, AHS; Alahji Bello Salihu; CEO, BRL and Mr John Adebanjo, the CEO, Swissport Nigeria in Lagos on Monday.
The communiqué said the MOU would enable sustainable and profitable ground handling rates, while also maintaining the highest standards of safety operations in the sector in Nigeria.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the new handling rates are 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 N25,000 and N70,000, depending on the aircraft type. Narrow body aircraft include Boeing B737, Airbus A320, ER 135 and ATR, while wide body aircraft are B767, A330, B777, B747 and B787.
Before the current approval, the last time handling rates were reviewed in Nigeria was in 1986 and the international airlines were still paying as low as $400 to handle narrow body aircraft, while they were charged between $1,000 and $1,200 for wide body aircraft.
Speaking, Oluwole, said the handling companies had to hold themselves accountable because the current misnomer affects them all.
He said: “So, we are going to have a technical committee in place that will act like an inspectorate to monitor the handling companies in the country.
“Hence, severe fine will be meted out by the disciplinary committee on the resolution and any infringement. This will be done after due notification to the NCAA. This will be in place in the interest of everybody.
“The fact is that the system we have set up is in the interest of all to survive. The undercutting of over 30 years is not leading us anywhere.”
Also, Salihu, commended the NCAA for the new price regime to see the light of the day and equally tinkering a way to ensure compliance for all and sundry.
The AHS director said the safety threshold was not just about the handling companies, but also about the safety and security of the country stressing that with appropriate charges, safety and security will better be enhanced.
He said, “With this, Nigeria will not continue to lose revenues and the sub-sector will be able to contribute to the growth of the industry.
“We are very grateful to the government who understand our position. By raising the handling charges, you are not doing the handling companies any favour.
“Rather, you are asking them to operate efficiently and effectively in accordance to the standard operation procedure that is published by both ICAO and IATA.
“We are a category One country in terms of safety and security. If handling companies are not operating to the standards, do you think we can retain the Category One Status? We cannot.”
Mr Olaniyi Adigun, Chairman, AGHAN who described the journey as tough said the first attempt at correcting the price anomaly was abortive because of the resistance of the strong and formidable airlines.
He said, “This (resistance) took us to the National Assembly where all was addressed. A one way ticket to Abuja now is about N80,000, while we were handling them for between N10,000 and N20,000.
“Who does that? We needed to increase based on the economic realities on ground.The association is coming out with a watertight commitment that will stipulate the penalties to any of our members that violates the agreement.
“And like I said, it will be termed as economic sabotage and the chairmen of these companies are the ones signing this communiqué, which will convey the commitment.” he said.
Vice President, AGHAN, Ahmed Bashir, said apart from signing the agreement, chairmen of the handling companies would also have to sign the third document that would specify sanction and legal departments were already working on it to fine tune the document.
He said, “Once they sign, the copies of the resolution, communiqué and the sanction we will make copies available to NCAA, Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC).
Bashir said if there was any violator, these documents would be presented in the competent court of law, adding that this was what they were doing to avoid any sabotage to ensure they received the cooperation of all.
