NCAA Generates N15.273bn from Air Tickets
Chinedu Eze
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said it has generated N6.112.8 billion ($16.98 million) as Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) from international airlines and over N9.16 billion from local airlines, totaling N15.273 billion between the months of January and August this year.
This was disclosed to journalists at the weekend in Lagos by the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Muhtar Usman who said there was tremendous improvement in the funds generated compared to the previous years.
Statistics released by NCAA disclosed that passenger traffic in the last eight months has hit 2.4 million with 27,100 flight movement.
International passenger traffic from January-August show that 10 of the foreign airlines are airlifting most of the passengers with Ethiopian Airlines taking the lead with over 134,104 passengers, followed by Emirates with 107, 217, British Airways, 86, 249 and Turkish airlines,70, 392 passengers.
Others are Air France, 70,144, KLM Royal Dutch, 63,990, Virgin Atlantic 63,448, Delta airline, 39,196, Qatar, 38,706 and South African Airways, 36, 868 passengers.
For domestic passenger traffic, seven airlines are pulling their weight with Air Peace in the forefront with over 340, 664, with Dana Air trailing with 330,370, AZMAN, 245, 437 and Arik Air, 177, 061 passengers.
Others are; Medview, 156, 226, Aero, 138, 146 and Overland, 78, 166 passengers.
The director general said it is expected that the total funds to be collected by the NCAA would more than double before the end of the year as there is indication of passenger traffic growth during the rest of the year.
He said air travel demand as projected by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) would continue to grow with more connectivity.
Usman said that IATA’s record that indicated that Africa is second in July passenger traffic with increase of 6.8 per cent could be surpassed with direct flight link connecting various parts of the continent.