The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, has concluded arrangement to parley with officials of the non scheduled local airline operators over the newly introduced charges. Engr. Nnamdi Udoh, the managing director of NAMA disclosed that the meeting is scheduled to hold at Transcorp Hotel, Abuja next week. Udoh affirmed that the meeting would afford the parties the opportunity to tackle the grey areas resulting from the newly introduced charges of $3000 for foreign registered aircraft and $2500 for Nigerian registered ones. The managing director, said shortly after a meeting with the Senate Committee on Aviation in Abuja on Monday, that the Senators described the issues at stake as a “family affairs” directing that the parties should hold a meeting to resolve all contentious issues amicably and chart a new course in moving the industry forward. Her said the charges are in compliance with section 30(2) (9) and (c) of the Civil Aviation Act of 2006 and are jointly collected on behalf of all agencies that provide services at the newly constructed and designated private terminals in Lagos, Abuja and 11 other airports where the private terminals would be constructed. “In the past, non-scheduled airlines paid different charges to different aviation agencies for the services they render them, with the attendant bottlenecks associated with such arrangement. Today, when a non-scheduled airline pays this new charge, it does not need to pay other separate charges to any of the service-providing agencies anymore”, Udoh said. He explained that the new charges constitute a luxury tax, which is acceptable internationally for the type of services offered by private jet operators, and it is used to maintain highly exclusive facilities provided at these luxury terminals. NAMA boss maintained that all the necessary notification were done through the issuance of AIC and newspaper advertorials two months ago.
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