… seek govt’s immediate intervention to save Aero, Arik
… refute report on insolvency
Unions in the aviation industry have risen against the seeming collapse of the airlines; Aero Contractors and Arik Air, alleging that it is a ploy by some people in order to acquire it through liquidation at a cheap cost.
The two unions; Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) and National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) noted that Aero Contractors is wealthy of assets that it cannot be considered irredeemable of any level of indebtedness.
They noted that Aero and Arik Air, both being under the receivership of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) have been in the eye of the storm all too often since the last quarter of last year, but unfortunately not for good reasons.
Secretary General of NUATE, Mr. Ocheme Abbah, delivering his speech on behalf of the unions at a press conference today, entitled “Who wants Aero gone? And why kill Arik?; said AMCON itself has had to join the fray, uncharacteristically, a few times, to assert its views on critical matters of self-interest. “In all, the involvement of AMCON in aviation has come under serious scrutiny,” he stated.
He quoted a recent report claiming that Aero, the oldest indigenous airline in Nigeria has already gone under, impressing that its state of insolvency was irredeemable.
The unionist however, said that the report was erroneous and also declared false the airline’s CEO claim in the report that Aero’s airplanes have become too old to fly and are being grounded as such.
To counter the reasons laid out in the report pointing to Aero’s insolvency, he said said: “But, as far as we insiders can decipher, both the report and the CEO’s assertions are thoroughly economical with the truth and bereft of facts and truth.
“For example, the CEO’s assertion that Aero’s planes are too old to fly are completely false, even if aided by internal misinformation. The fact as we know it is that Aero operates the B737 Classic generation, the oldest of which just clocked 30years.
“This class of aircraft are able to operate up to 85,000 cycles, or 100,000 flight hours as approved by the manufacturer, Boeing. None of these aircraft in Aero’s fleet has operated up to half of the approved figures.
“We stand to be proved wrong. While it is true that older aircraft do have higher maintenance costs, it must be borne in mind that the airline owns an approved Maintenance & Repair Organisation (MRO) with elite engineers in its fold.
“Till date, there is no report from the MRO, or the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) that any aircraft operated by Aero is too old to be maintained, or to fly or that there exist any shortfalls in Aero’s maintenance culture. On the contrary, Aero’s maintenance culture is rated among the very best. Therefore, this high flying lie of too old aircraft in Aero clearly bears ulterior an motive.
“The report in question failed to countenance the fact that Aero does have an MRO that maintains and carries out up to 1D Check on own and third party carriers. The MRO is currently on the threshold of becoming a major player in the industry.
“As a matter of fact, the airline, Aero, just granted the MRO autonomy to operate as a quasi-subsidiary, being part of its unbundling plan. The MRO does have very bright prospects no doubt if properly managed and funded.
“The report also failed to countenance the fact that Aero does operate a rotary wing which if granted lease of life has expansive capacity to prosper through contracts with oil companies and for charter operations of which it was previously the leading firm in Nigeria. This too has just become a separate business unit, showing its viability.
“More still, the report was silent on the fact of the existence of an approved Aviation Training Organisation (ATO) under Aero with unlimited prospects, and which could decide to even rival the Nigerian College of aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria. It is also now a separate business unit, to underscore its potential.
“To discountenance all of the above prospects and say the airline is gone is utterly absurd to us, to say the least. We therefore, see the report under reference, and the claims made by the CEO in the report, to be part of an orchestration to unjustifiably compel the airline out of existence for some ulterior motive by some hidden forces.”
He disclosed that the same forces as above engineered the phony lease contract with House of 5A’s by which Aero was given only three seats in a 180-seater Airbus at a fixed price of N35,000 per seat.
Abbah pointed out that whereas the contract was for the purpose of expanding the airline’s network, the leased aircraft somehow supplanted all Aero aircraft on its juicy routes, pushing Aero aircraft to fringe routes with limited passenger intakes.
According to him, for the period that the lease lasted, the entire Aero Contractors was essentially working for House of 5A’s, as the lessor was making more money than the Airline itself.
“No wonder the Airline ran itself into a deep financial crisis and began to owe salaries unprecedentedly. But for the intervention of the unions which threatened to direct workers to withdraw services to the leased aircraft, Aero would still have been under the bondage of the House of 5A’s contract. So, who arranged such a murky lease? And was it a deliberate ploy to bring the airline down?
Wondering those so eager to see Aero gone and why, the Unionist questioned the rationale of seconding Mr. Charles Johnson-Arumeme from Arik Air to Aero as Commercial Manager.
He accused Johnson-Arumeme of drawing the schedule that granted Aero’s juicy routes to House of 5A’s. “The same Mr. Johnson-Arumeme has overseen the bastardisation of the Aero online sales portal to deliberately render it thoroughly defective,” he asserted. Assert
Ocheme explained: “We observe that the sales portal would show seats not available when only about 30 passengers would have booked by then. This is in addition to an exceedingly poor schedule with bad timings just to discourage prospective passengers.
“All these acts are clear cases of self-sabotage. This is as baffling as it is exasperating. Is Mr. Charles Johnson-Arumeme a face of the hidden forces working to kill Aero? Why is he working in Aero, but receiving salary from Arik?”
Ocheme used the medium to announce that there have been sinister attempts in recent times to provoke a reaction from the workforce or the unions to withdraw services which would provide the basis for the company to be shut down.
“Salaries are being owed for upwards of two months. Conditions of Service have remained unilaterally suspended.
“Even last week, after the CEO fouled the industrial atmosphere with his shutting down press goof, he convened a staff town hall meeting with the plan to provoke unrest, knowing that workers have become restive.
“But, seeing through the plan, workers boycotted the meeting. Fortunately so far, in all these, the Unions and workers have refused the bait. We are aware that this has left the evil planners frustrated,” he disclosed.
While stating that it would appear that the hidden forces are hell bent on forcing a shutdown of Aero Contractors, he pointed out that should they succeed, over 700 direct aviation jobs will go down the drain.
“A very solid aviation brand will become history. Nigeria’s flourish- and-flounder phenomenon in the aviation industry will once again come to the fore. And the prospect of a growing aviation industry in Nigeria will receive a major setback. This would be unfortunate indeed,” Ocheme stated.
He therefore called on the intervention of the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Labour & Productivity, Mr. Chris Ngige and the National Assembly to ensure that the scheming to force out of operations 63 years old Nigeria’s oldest airline; Aero Contractors does not see the light of the day.
“This is the handwork of some people who want to ensure that Aero goes down so they can buy it with one penny and our exposure’ is to tell the public that this is false,” he stated.