18 firms apply for air permits, as airlines sell N330bn tickets

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on Monday reeled out statistics of passengers for 2015 and 2016 with the foreign and domestic carriers selling tickets amounting to N330.5 billion between January and October, 2016 while the sum of N385.5bn was made in 2015.

The figure shows a marginal decline in the number of passengers in 2016 compared to the 2015 figure.

NCAA Director General, Capt. Mukhtar Usman who addressed newsmen at the Murtala Muhammed Airport disclosed that in 2015, airlines conveyed 42,000 passengers daily and operated 700 flights on a daily basis.

In 2016, the figure of passengers conveyed daily remained 42,000 while 597 flights were operated, an indication of decline in flights operations in 2016.

In 2015, eight domestic airlines carried 8, 130, 568 passengers and operated 202,352 flights while their foreign counterparts numbering 31 operated 31,493 flights and carried 3,272,331 passengers from January to September.

However there was a marginal decline in 2016 with domestic carriers lifting 8,090,816 passengers in 130, 745 flights while the foreign carriers operated 33, 099 flights and conveyed 3,272,331 passengers.

The implications of the decline in passenger traffic was that less money was made by aviation agencies in the previous year.

Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Engr. Saleh Dunoma had consistently grumbled over declining revenue accruing to the agency especially from passengers.

Also aviation agencies including NCAA, FAAN, Nigeria Airspace Management Agency(NAMA), Nigeria Meteorological Agency(NiMET) and the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) shared five per cent levy collected from passengers as ticket sale charge ( TSC).

Besides FAAN makes N1000 from each local air traveller and 50 dollars from an international passenger.