The Federal Government Federal said it lost a whopping N17.5 billion of aeronautic charges in 23 weeks.
Hamisu Yadudu, the Managing Director of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), made the disclosure during a virtual stakeholders’ session on Tuesday night,
He said FAAN also incurred N1.4 billion loss of non-aeronautic charges between April and June.
FAAN internally generated revenue plunged by over 90 per cent in the last six months on account of the coronavirus crisis.
He observed that the agency had ensured that local airports under its management had begun domestic services after fulfilling the requirements set by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
He stated that FAAN’s managers opened airports that were involved in evacuation flight arrangements during the lockdown period.
According to Yadudu, the move contributed to the agency’s incurring cost on maintenance and utilities in spite of slump in traffic and revenue.
“In spite of the drastic drop in revenue, FAAN has managed to ensure that all its local airports have commenced domestic operations having met the requirements by Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, NCAA and other regulatory bodies and have been issued clearance to reopen.”
“Plans are also at advanced stage to ensure that the International Airports are set for re-opening on the 29th of August, 2020 as announced by the Minister of Aviation as we will be seeing during the course of this meeting. All these have come at a huge cost to the Authority with little or no cash inflow,” he said
Yadudu said the protocols deployed for the kick-off of international operations as guideline for ensuring that more than 1,280 international passengers are allowed on a daily basis would translate to lower revenue for the agency.
“The above automatically translates to fewer passengers and limited income even with the resumption of international operations.
“All these are issues of great concern to the authority and partly what has necessitated the need for all our stakeholders to rub minds on strategies to adopt to ensure that the industry remains in operation to provide the very much needed service.”