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.
It will be recalled 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 Cateory 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.