One airline said it was appalling when it was asked to pay $10,000 per landing in a West African country; a charge which would have made it practically impossible to break even on the route if costs of other of operations were added. Operators in the ground handling sub-sector of the aviation industry say the handling rates in existence in Nigeria remain the lowest in the whole of Africa and the entire aviation world. The ground handling firms with the responsibility for providing ground support services to airlines before take-off and after landing are critical to aviation safety. Findings by Daily Trust indicate that the last time the handling rates were reviewed in Nigeria was 35 years ago when the exchange rate of the dollar was virtually at par with the Nigerian naira. This, the operators say is not healthy for the industry as it raises safety and economic concerns in addition to denying the federal government through the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) billions of naira annually from the five percent gross annual turnover paid by the ground handling companies.