New handing rates: Stakeholders call for stringent sanctions for violators

The long-awaited take-off of the new reviewed handling rates for ground handling companies in Nigeria is expected to commence next year.

Domestic operation charges will come into effect March 1, 2022 while International and regional operations is effective January 1, 2022.

This is just as the NCAA Director-General, Capt. Musa Nuhu approved the discount of 25 per cent rate on the new handling charges as requested by the Aviation Ground Handling Association of Nigeria, AGHAN.

The ground handling companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, to ensure that, this hard-earned upward review of charges is not sabotaged by any party as contained in a communique jointly signed by 5 handling companies and dated December 14, 2021.

The communique was signed by; Olumuyiwa Olumekun; the Ag. CEO, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) Plc; Mr Basil Agboarumi, CEO, Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) Plc, Mr Samuel Oluwole, Director Aviation Handling Service (AHS), Alhaji Bello Salihu; CEO, Butake Resources Ltd (BRL) and Mr John Adebanjo, the CEO, Swissport Nigeria.

The upward review, the joint communiqué says, will enable sustainable and profitable grounThe long-awaited take-off of the new reviewed handling rates for ground handling companies in Nigeria is expected to commence next year.d handling rates, while also maintaining the highest standards of safety operations in the sector in Nigeria.

“Given the foregoing, kindly find attached the new revised ground handling rates for our operations”.

Speaking on the new rates and its commencement, Chairman, AGHAN, Mr. Olaniyi Adigun said, the journey to achieving this feat was not easy describing it as tough.

“The first attempt was abortive because of the resistance of the strong and formidable airlines. This 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 the ground”.

To prevent any sabotage, he said, the Association would come out with a watertight commitment that would stipulate the penalties if any member 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”.

“I don’t want to preempt what they will say, but there is going to be severe penalties not just to the ground handling companies, but also to the airlines that is out to sabotage the government. Such airline or handling company will have to pay compensation to the appropriate body”.

Another stakeholder, Alhaji Bello Salihu, CEO, Butake Handling Company also agreed that, sanction be applied on anyone who violates the agreement as agreed by all.

“Sanction will be applied and NCAA will be involved in punishing any recalcitrant member of AGHAN that violates the agreement. Anyone that does it, we are going to report such to NCAA”.

Alhaji Ahmed Bashir, Vice Chairman AGHAN, explains the agreement reached by all parties assuring that, the law would be applied if there was a violation.

“We also agreed that we should send a communiqué, communicating the new discounted rates to the airlines. This new document was also signed by the CEOs of these five ground handling companies. That is the second documents in terms of our implementation. One, the resolution, two the communiqué and the third are that to ensure what we have is also tenable by law, the Chairmen of the handling companies will also have to sign the third document that will specify sanction and our legal departments are already working on it to fine-tune the document”.

He adds, “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). So, if there is any violator, these documents will be presented in the competent court of law. This is what we are doing to avoid any sabotage to ensure we get the cooperation of all”.

Mr. Samuel Oluwole, Chairman, Precision Handling Company disclosed that, a technical committee would be put in place like an inspectorate that would be able to monitor the handling companies in the country and severe fine 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”.

They commended the Ministry of Aviation and the NCAA for their sense of patriotism and give them the necessary support in the interest of Nigeria.

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.