Arik begins talk with NAMA over debts

Nigeria flag carrier airline, Arik Air, has begun talks the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) over its indebtedness.

NAMA had planned to recover its over N8 billion debts owed by various airlines.
Chairman, Committee on debt recovery for aviation agencies, Dr. Saleh Ibrahim, disclosed that the panel was planning to ground airlines that were unwilling to pay government what they owe her.

Ibrahim, however, said that the threat was paying off as some of the airlines have responded by paying some of their debts, adding that the committee had so far recovered about N329 million in two months.

He said:”We have intensified our efforts to recover more than half of the monies before the end of the year, noting that the measure put in place to recover the debts was to deny any defaulting operator start up for departure or totally ground its operations.

According to him, what the agency was demanding for is the transfer of its funds that was in the airlines’ kitties for many years.

Apart from NAMA, most of the Nigerian airlines owe the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), N10 billion and N20 billion respectively.