Skip to main content

Aviation group opposes bailout for domestic airlines

First Nation Airways

First Nation Airways

A group, the Aviation Round Table (ART), has called on the Federal Government to resist any pressure to offer bailout to ailing domestic airlines.

President of the group, Mr Gbenga Olowo, made the call on Friday in Lagos.

Olowo, who admitted that some of Nigeria’s airlines were currently facing challenging times, however, urged the government to pay serious attention to the aviation sector.

He said, “Government should get serious with this sector of the economy; without airlines, there are no airports.

“Airports are useless if you don’t have airlines; so, government should pay serious attention to the issue of airlines.

“It is not a bailout issue. No airline should ask for bailout and there should be no bailout for any airline in any form

“Anyway, government does not have such money to dole out to any airline for now.’’

According to him, the government should rather look into the issues of multiple taxation and scarcity of aviation fuel which are stifling the airlines.

Olowo said that those were the areas government should look into, adding “why should there be Value Added Tax (VAT) on air transportation when there is no VAT on road, rail or sea transportation?

“The government should be aware that it is killing the airlines because after paying these taxes, the monies left with them cannot cover cost.

“We are an oil-producing nation but there is no aviation fuel for our airlines. These airlines are using all the funds they have now to buy fuel which should have been bought on credit.”

Olowo, however, commended the government for removing import duty on aircraft spares, saying that it was a demonstration that it was committed to sustaining the aviation sector.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Court grants Fani-Kayode N50m bail

Fani-kayode sandwiched by EFCC officials Justice James Tsoho of the Federal High Court Abuja on Thursday granted a N50m bail to former spokesman of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode. Fani-Kayode was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a five-count charge of money laundering to the tune of N26m. Fani-Kayode is the sole defendant in the fresh charges numbered, FHC/ABJ/CR/140/2016. The EFCC accused the defendant of diverting 26 million Naira allegedly received from the ONSA while Sambo Dasuki was in office. The anti-graft agency also accused him of handling the said N26 million without going through financial institution as required under the Money Laundering Act. The embattled former minister is already facing 17-count charge of money laundering before the Lagos Division of the court, along with a former Finance Minister; Nenadi Usman, Danjuma Yusuf and a firm; Joint Trust Dimension Nigeria Limited. They were charg...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pope not involved in Colombian peace deal- Vatican

Pope Francis Pope Francis has turned down a request to play a role in the peace deal between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group. The Vatican in a statement issued on Wednesday in in Vatican City said that an invitation was sent to his Holiness in early August to appoint a representative to participate in the committee that selected the judges for the talks. The statement said that though Pope Francis supported the peace process, he, however, reiterated that he would not get involved in Colombian peace deal. It said that Pope was praying for the enlightenment of the hearts and minds of those who were called to promote the common good of the Colombian nation. A deal was announced last week, putting an end to five decades of internal conflict between government forces and the FARC rebels. The agreement, which needed to be ratified through a referendum in Oct. 2, would entail setting up a special court to grant amnesties or pu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Man docked for defiling 9-year-old girl

magistrate-court A 33-year-old man, Godwin Otobo, was on Monday docked at a Surulere Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos.For allegedly defiling a nine-year-old girl, ‎Otobo, who lives at No. 10, Borrow Pit St., Sangotedo-Ajah area of Lagos, was said to have defiled the underage girl whose parents also reside in the same compound. The Prosecutor, Sgt. Anthonia Osayande, told the court that the accused committed the offence at about 9.00 p.m. sometimes in September. “The accused defiled the girl in the night when she was fetching water.‎ “The offence contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011,’’ Osayande told the court. The accused pleaded not guilty to the one-count charge of defilement. Ruling on a bail application filed by the accused, Chief Magistrate Ipaye Nwachukwu, granted him bail in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties in like sum. She said one of the sureties must be a property owner in Lagos State, while the other must be a civil servant on grade...
Post a Comment
Read more