BY Desmond Okon
Aero Contractors, Nigeria’s oldest airline, says past failures will not be repeated as it plans to resume scheduled services from December 5, 2022.
The airline said this on Thursday at a news conference in Lagos.
The planned resumption comes nearly five months after it suspended operations in July due to financial straits and other challenges in the sector.
Speaking at the news conference, Ado Sanusi, the company’s chief executive officer, explained that the suspension was to reposition and restructure the company.
Sanusi said having satisfied regulatory requirements, Aero Contactors received approval from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authorities (NCAA) to commence operations.
He noted that the airline has employed Charles Grant as its new chief finance officer (CFO) and will be run by a new management.
“The airline will be operating with boeing 737 and dash 8 (Q-400) servicing ten destinations. These destinations include; Warri, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Benin, Yola, Sokoto, Kano, Asaba and Calabar,” Sanusi said.
“The airline has three business units, namely; the maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO), the fixed and rotary wing airline operation and the training unit.”
Sanusi, also Aero Contractor’s managing director, said the resumption means that more products will be churned out to cater for the flying public who have “had a lot of hardship due to capacity reduction in the airline industry, which has resulted into price increase”.
He said the company would like to see that it stabilises the market as it would bring a lot of capacity into the system, especially during the Christmas season.
“We believe with the hardship that Nigerians are going through, we should be able to provide a good way of transporting people to their loved ones at a very affordable rate,” Sanusi said.
“We are pleased and delighted to return to services after a few months. We are determined to offer great travel experience to our customers during this season and beyond.”
Speaking on steps taken to sustain operations and prevent future sanctions by the NCAA, Sanusi said the airline had conducted a study on previous events that led to its suspension.
This, he said, was why it took longer for services to recommence.
“We believe and we are confident that the mistakes of the past will not repeat itself. We have looked at what actually caused the failures of the past and we are very determined not to repeat the same mistakes or to expect the same results,” Sanusi said.
On his part, Grant said the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) was “fully committed to returning Aero Contractors back to the skies”.
He said the corporation would ensure that the airline receives the necessary support for sustained services.
“They have very robust qualified teams working within AMCON, ensuring that Aero receives the necessary funding it requires, ensuring that Aero receives the necessary technical support it requires,” he said.
“And we’re confident that with the support of both AMCON, the staff, and the larger aviation sector, we’ll be able to deliver services that are not just meeting the market, exceeding expectation, [but] with the competence and capacity of our management team, we will also be minimising and mitigating inefficiencies and driving up efficiency, increasing the value we’re offering to the market.”
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