Stakeholders doubt existence of debt
Three weeks after the Federal Government approved 30 per cent debt relief to Nigerian airlines over the skyrocketing prices of Jet A1 fuel, the carriers have yet to get the relief. 
  
The Managing Director of Aero Contractors, Ado Sanusi, told The Guardian that the airlines had yet to get any official communication or implementation directive from the Federal Government or the aviation parastatals three weeks after.
  
Besides, the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DG-CA), Chris Najomo, said the implementation of the 30 per cent discount approval would follow due process.
  
The Guardian gathered that despite the announcement of debt relief by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, the airlines had yet to get any support from the government.
  
However, a source close to one of the indigenous airlines also confided in The Guardian yesterday that none of the existing airlines was indebted to any of the aviation agencies, wondering the essence of the pronouncement of the debt relief.
  
According to the source, the aviation agencies – Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)- have all adopted ‘pay as you go’ for services rendered to the airlines over the years.
  
The source also confirmed that none of the airlines had received any form of support from the government over the high prices of aviation fuel, as the product still sold for over N2,500 per litre.
  
The source said: “The debts are not in existence. For instance, you pay NAMA as you operate; you also pay FAAN the Passenger Service Charge (PSC) almost immediately you airlift passengers, while the NCAA gets its Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) from the airlines, too. So, where is the debt coming from? The airlines are not indebted to the agencies. The government should not generalise any debt. Some of the so-called debts were owed by dead airlines. The agencies have already written them off as bad debts.

“These charges that we are talking about are classified. However, I think the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) will be in the best position to talk about debt relief. The AON did not disclose the details of their meeting with the minister to individuals. But I can tell you that no debt is in existence.”
  
Also, the Managing Director, Aero Contractors, Ado Sanusi, told The Guardian that the operators had yet to receive any official communication or implementation directive from either the Federal Government or its aviation parastatals on the proposed 30 per cent debt relief as announced.
  
According to Sanusi, the expectation within the industry was that the relief would cover all relevant aviation agencies and possibly extend to other government-related obligations, considering the severe financial pressures airlines were facing due to the persistent increase in Jet A1 prices and operational costs.
  
He, however, expressed that the delay might be due to administrative and policy implementation processes, stressing that the airlines would continue to engage the government to ensure the promise was fulfilled.
  
Attempts to speak with the Vice Chairman and Public Relations Officer (PRO), AON, Allen Onyema and Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, respectively, proved abortive as messages sent to their phones were not responded to as of the time of filing this report.
  
However, Najomo confirmed to The Guardian that the airlines had yet to access the discounts.
 
Najomo said the government had already approved the 30 per cent discount on debts owed by airlines to aviation agencies.