The Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, Obiora Okonkwo, has said the federal government charges Aviation operators more than the United States of America and other countries in the world. Professor Obiora Okonkwo said for every ticket sold by airline operators to customers, 20 deductions go to different agencies of the federal government. Obioral noted that the 5 percent passenger rate charged by the federal government has outlived its usefulness.
He decried that even as the government charges higher than other countries, the country’s infrastructure in airports remains in poor states. “We have said several in this platform and so many other occasions that the airline operators are overtaxed. For every single ticket that is sold, there are about 20 deductions going to different government agencies.
“And these 20 deductions obviously constitute a great percentage of the fare that you charge to your clients. It is known all over the world that aviation agencies can only make charges to recover their costs but not to make profit, talkless of being a source of revenue for government. “But like you have seen, we the aviation operators, we have been vindicated that the huge amount of the money they collect are not reinvested in providing our aviation infrastructure at airports, or so many other places, but rather goes into government purse, ” he said.
The Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines advised the federal government to listen to Aviation sector workers who threatene.