By KELVIN OSA OKUNBOR

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said it lost N17.5billion of aeronautic charges in 23 weeks and incurred N1.4 billion loss of non-aeronautic charges between April and June, 2020.

Its Managing Director, Capt. Hamisu Yadudu who disclosed this at a virtual stakeholders meeting said the agency’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) dipped by over 90 per cent in the last six months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yadudu said that notwithstanding the challenges posed by COVID-19 on FAAN’s revenue, the agency has ensured that local airports under its management commenced domestic operations after meeting the requirements set by Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.

He said it was upon meeting the conditions prescribed that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and other regulatory agencies issued clearance to airports to reopen.

Yadudu said during the lock down, its managers opened airports that were involved in evacuation flight arrangements.

This according to him, further made the agency incur cost on maintenance and utilities despite the total decline in traffic as well as revenue.

According to him, “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

Speaking on the protocols put in place for the commencement of international operations as guideline to ensure that more than 1,280 international passengers are allowed on a daily basis, Yadudu said that it would translate to reduced revenue for the agency, as fewer passengers would be coming in.

“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,” Yadudu said.

The Director of Finance and Accounts (DFA), Mrs. Nike Aboderin in her presentation titled, “Ongoing COVID-19 and Implications on FAAN” revealed that the agency lost over N17.5 billion of aeronautic charges in 23 weeks and also N1.4 billion loss of non-aeronautic charges from April to June, 2020.

She explained that the loss is huge compared to the same period in 2019.

Aboderin lamented that compared to 2019, only 8.7 per cent of the agency’s non-aeronautical revenue charges were collected from April to June 2020.

She pointed out that as a result of the pandemic FAAN customers were not only defaulting on payment for services rendered to them but that there is an increasing request for payment suspension, deferral and waivers

Aboderin further stated that 87 per cent of 2020 budgeted overhead cost was wiped out in six months with up to 95 per cent decline in weekly revenues. (The Nation)

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