The Chairman of the Association of Approved Aviation Training Organisations in Nigeria, Mr Bankole Bernard, has called on the government to grant special waivers to airline operators as a means of saving the aviation sector.
The aviation sector in recent weeks has been rocked with various complaints from passengers over the high cost of flight tickets.
According to The Nation, checks on the portal of one of the carriers for yesterday’s flight on the Lagos-Abuja rotation puts the lowest fare at N75,000 for a one-way ticket. The carrier for the same date of travel has fares ranging between N75, 000, N78,000, N82,000 and N100,000.
The airline operators have attributed this to the high cost of aviation fuel in the country.
Addressing this on Channels TV on Monday, Mr. Bankole said the Federal Government can assist the airline operators by cutting down on some taxes to help reduce operating costs for the airline operators.
“The Federal Constituency can defer certain charges placed on the airlines, defer taxes, landing charges etc, this way operation cost is reduced”
He also faulted the call for the importation of aviation fuel into the country as it is not realistic
According to him, the challenge is not about aviation fuel scarcity but the high cost of aviation fuel.
“We must address the current issue here which is the high cost of aviation fuel which is affecting flight tickets price.” he added.
