*Says defaulters of aviation fees will be sanctioned
ELEVEN years after the national civil aviation policy was last reviewed, the Federal Government on Wednesday came down hard on the over 100 private jet owners in the country, insisting that strict adherence to payment of appropriate levies would no longer be compromised.
Any private jet owner who uses it for commercial purposes would also be sanctioned.
Aviation Minister, Mrs. Stella Oduah, who spoke after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, said: “Are they (private jet owners) paying what they are supposed to pay? The response is no, they are not, but we want to make sure that they pay what they are supposed to pay. These are part of what the policy is addressing. We want to make sure that private jets are private jets and commercial jets are commercial jets and the owners will operate within the boxes they are meant to operate so we dont want to overcharge anyone, we don’t want to undercharge, we want to do what is global standards.
“We had to also revise the policy to ensure that safety is given optimum importance in the way we do things. Definitely, technology involved in using the airports has changed and so, you can see it is very important that we enhance the technology that we have within our airports and our airports facilities and so, several of these was the essence in which we had to quickly review our aviation policy.
“When we talk about general aviation, we are talking about the private jets. As of today, we have about a hundred of them and we also have to highlight passengers Bill of Right. What that means is that all passengers rights are being protected and at the same time, the rights of the airline operators should be protected as well so that there is no conflict between passengers and operators.
