Aviation workers' unions have issued a 14-day ultimatum to airline operators in Nigeria demanding the immediate remittance of all outstanding five per cent Ticket Sales Charges collected on behalf of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority and other aviation agencies — warning that failure to comply could result in industrial action capable of disrupting flight operations across the entire country.
In a joint letter addressed to the Chairman of the Airline Operators of Nigeria, the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the National Union of Air Transport Employees expressed grave concern over what they described as the persistent failure of several airlines to remit statutory charges collected from passengers, leaving aviation agencies deprived of billions of naira required to sustain safety oversight and critical operational responsibilities.
The letter, signed by ATSSSAN General Secretary Frances Akinjole and NUATE Deputy General Secretary Odinaka Igbokwe, warned: "Failure to comply with this demand within the stipulated period will leave the Aviation Unions with no alternative but to employ every means necessary to ensure that the entire Nigerian aviation sector does not go aground because of air safety issues necessitated by the actions and inactions of the entities stifling the agencies of their required operational funds."
The TSC and Why It Matters
The five per cent Ticket Sales Charge is a statutory levy established under the Civil Aviation Act, collected by airlines from passengers at the point of ticket purchase and remitted to aviation agencies — including the NCAA, NAMA, NiMet, and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau — to fund their operational and safety oversight responsibilities. The unions characterised the TSC as a passenger levy that airlines have no legal basis for withholding, arguing that its non-remittance directly undermines the financial capacity of agencies central to aviation safety.
The accumulated outstanding remittances had reached several billions of naira, creating funding pressures that were already manifesting as difficulty in meeting staff welfare obligations, funding safety-critical employee training, and conducting essential regulatory inspections across the sector.
The Background to the Ultimatum
The ultimatum follows weeks of escalating tension over the TSC remittance issue. In May 2026, an internal NCAA memo was leaked directing the suspension of services to airlines with outstanding remittances — a "no-pay-no-service" arrangement that caused immediate controversy and was subsequently suspended by the NCAA pending consultations, though the authority stressed it was not a waiver of the underlying debts.
The 14-day deadline set by the unions was July 22, 2026. The ultimatum creates a new pressure point in an already fraught dispute with implications for the funding of Nigeria's aviation safety infrastructure — coming at a time when the sector simultaneously navigates high fuel costs and celebrates its record 91.45 per cent ICAO safety rating.
