AMCON: N10bn needed to revive Arik… we discovered deep rot
The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) on Sunday said it had discovered deep rooted rot at Arik Airlines.
The organisation said it would require over N10 billion to fix the rot before the largest local carrier could resume full and uninterrupted flight operations.
The asset company made the disclosure in a statement signed by Jude Nwauzor, its Spokesman.
AMCON took over the company on February 9, saying Arik was indebted to the tune of over N300 billion.
The statement said the situation was so bad that only nine aircraft out of the 30 in the fleet of the airlines were operational.
According to the statement, 21 of them have either been grounded, gone for C-check in Europe, among other forms of challenges.
“As if these problems are not enough, the airline does not have money to procure aviation fuel for the nine operational aircraft because no dealer wants to sale aviation fuel to Arik if it is not on cash-and-carry basis,” it read.
“This also calls for public understanding because flight schedules may be realigned based on the nine aircraft that are available, technically sound and ready for flight operation.”
“All these problems in addition to huge staff salaries, which have remained unpaid for 11 months; vendors that supply different items to Arik Air that are also owed means that Nigerians may have to tarry-a-while to allow the new management clean up the huge mess at the airline before Arik would finally resume uninterrupted flight.”
The statement quoted Roy Ilegbodu, a veteran aviation expert who is now in charge of the airline, as reassuring Nigerians that the issues, though daunting, would be gradually resolved.
He said once all the aircraft were back to the fleet, Arik Air would within the shortest possible time regain its pride of place as a leader among the comity of airlines in Nigeria.
It said the new management had settled the insurance cover for the aircraft which would have expired on February 12 and also met with different trade creditors as well as aggrieved staffers.
It called for public understanding as the management begins the tough job of ensuring that Arik is returned to full operational capacity within the shortest possible timeframe.
It’ll likely take some adjustments to turn things around as we’re already seeing, but under the circumstances, AMCON did the right thing by intervening to ensure the airline doesn’t go under which would have affected the whole aviation industry.