Air Peace, FAAN duel over ₦7 million debt claim
Air Peace and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria ( FAAN) have disagreed over a ₦7 million debt accruing as landing, parking and electricity charges at Enugu Airport.
While the airline said it has paid over ₦5 million through the Remita platform, the authority said the amount was yet to reflect in its system.
Consequently, Air Peace has accused FAAN of peddling false information aimed at tarnishing its good corporate image.
The authority stirred a major controversy at the weekend when the Manager of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, Mr. Mgbemena Orjiako sealed off the airline’s counters over an alleged ₦7 million debt.
In a briefing, the airline said the action of the manager of the airport disrupted its flight operations for more than two hours and resulted in the loss of millions of naira in revenue.
Air Peace condemned the sealing of its Enugu airport offices, saying it had made payments to FAAN before the disruption of its operations.
A new twist to the incident, however, emerged on Sunday when a group that claimed to be representing aviation workers quoted FAAN as confirming that it was yet to receive the payments made by Air Peace.
Reacting to the fresh claim in a statement signed by its Corporate Communications Manager, Mr. Chris Iwarah, the carrier said it furnished FAAN with the evidence of the two separate payments it made.
The airline said it got reliable information that FAAN had recruited several groups to make false allegations against it in the authority’s bid to lower its corporate reputation in the estimation of right-thinking members of the public.
“On Friday, June 9, 2017, we alerted members of the public to the shutdown of our flight operations by the manager of the Enugu airport over a claim of N7 million debt. Upon realising its error, FAAN admitted that we were not owing it and apologised for the disruption of our flights and the inconveniences caused our esteemed guests whose flights were consequently delayed.
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