Nigeria's AGHAN Orders Seven-Day Service Suspension Notices for Two Major Domestic Airlines Over Ground Handling Debt

The Association of Ground Handling Companies of Nigeria (AGHAN) has directed its member companies to issue formal seven-day service suspension notices to two unnamed major domestic airlines that together account for more than 70 percent of the total outstanding debt owed to ground handlers across the country. The directive followed an executive meeting held on Friday, September 4, 2026.

Under the directive, AGHAN member companies — which include NAHCO Aviance and SAHCO Plc — must notify the two debtor carriers that they are required to clear 75 percent of their total outstanding balance within seven days. The remaining 25 percent must be placed into a structured, mutually agreed repayment schedule to be fully settled within 90 days. Failure to meet these conditions will trigger a withdrawal of essential ramp services, including passenger baggage handling, aircraft towing, passenger boarding stair operations, and cabin cleaning, which would effectively ground the airlines' operations.

In a joint statement, AGHAN Chairman Olaniyi Adigun and Vice-Chairman Ahmed Bashir Gulmah said persistent commercial default by some client airlines had placed considerable financial pressure on ground handling companies, affecting their ability to meet obligations to employees, suppliers, statutory stakeholders, lenders, and shareholders, and to sustain investment in safe and efficient operations. AGHAN acknowledged broader systemic pressures facing Nigerian carriers, including foreign exchange volatility and high Jet A1 fuel prices, but stated that ground handlers can no longer serve as zero-interest credit facilities for struggling airlines. The association called on the management of the affected carriers to use the seven-day notice period to negotiate directly with their handling providers and settle outstanding accounts, in order to prevent widespread passenger disruption at Nigerian airports. AGHAN also reiterated its support for the five-point agenda of Festus Keyamo, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, stressing that industry sustainability requires airlines, handling companies, and regulatory agencies to honour their commercial agreements.

This dispute reflects a structural weakness in the relationship between ground handlers and airlines in markets under currency and fuel-cost pressure: handlers extend services on credit because withholding them risks grounding flights and angering passengers, but that same leverage means unpaid balances accumulate until the handler's own obligations to staff, suppliers and lenders come under strain. AGHAN's move to formalize a 75-percent-in-seven-days, 25-percent-in-ninety-days repayment structure is a way of converting informal arrears into an enforceable schedule rather than an open-ended credit line.

How this plays out will depend on whether the two carriers negotiate settlements within the notice window or allow ramp services — baggage handling, towing, boarding stairs, cabin cleaning — to actually lapse. A full withdrawal would halt operations for the carriers involved, which is the leverage AGHAN is relying on to force payment rather than a step it appears to want to take.

The next marker to watch is whether the two airlines meet the seven-day deadline or whether AGHAN's members proceed to withdraw services, since that outcome will determine whether the repayment framework becomes a template other Nigerian ground handlers apply to their own debtor airlines.