The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has called on the Federal Government to urgently amend the Civil Aviation Act to allow the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) collect its statutory charges directly from passengers and other end-users, instead of using domestic airlines as collection agents.
The operators also criticised the continued imposition of the five per cent Ticket Sales Charge (TSC), describing the arrangement as outdated, financially burdensome and inconsistent with international aviation best practices.
In a statement issued on Monday, AON dismissed reports suggesting that domestic airlines were indebted to the NCAA for regulatory services, insisting that all regulatory services provided by the authority are paid for upfront under a strict cash-before-service arrangement.
The association explained that airlines are required to settle invoices in advance for services such as aircraft inspections, crew licence validations, documentation renewals and other regulatory approvals before the NCAA renders any service.
“For clarity, the NCAA issues invoices for every regulatory service it provides, and operators are required to pay fully before such services are rendered. No airline receives NCAA regulatory services on credit,” the association stated.
According to AON, what the NCAA described as outstanding debts relates solely to the five per cent Ticket Sales Charge imposed on passengers and not to unpaid regulatory service fees owed by airlines.
The association maintained that the NCAA, as a regulatory institution, should not rely on airlines to collect statutory charges on its behalf, particularly at a time when operators are grappling with rising operational costs, foreign exchange pressures and soaring aviation fuel prices.
AON said several member airlines had previously maintained dedicated accounts from which the NCAA directly drew its monthly remittances, but noted that worsening global economic pressures, including the impact of geopolitical tensions on fuel prices, had made the arrangement increasingly difficult to sustain.
The operators disclosed that they had earlier appealed to the Federal Government through the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development for temporary relief from statutory charges in order to ease financial pressure on the sector.
According to the association, President Bola Tinubu approved a 30 per cent concession as an interim measure pending consideration of additional requests by domestic carriers.
The airlines, however, stressed that broader reforms were still necessary to ensure long-term sustainability within the industry.
AON further argued that the current TSC framework imposes additional transaction and remittance costs on airlines without providing any direct passenger service benefits.
The association proposed that the new collection framework should take effect from June 1, 2026, insisting that direct billing by the NCAA would improve transparency, reduce administrative burdens on airlines and align Nigeria’s aviation sector with global standards.
The position of the operators follows recent tensions between airlines and the NCAA after the regulator reportedly placed several operators on a temporary “no-pay, no-service” arrangement over alleged outstanding remittances before later reviewing the directive.
