Victor EzejaNigerian airline, Aero Contractors has announced temporal suspension of its operations with effect from Wednesday July 20 2022.
The Nigeria’s oldest airline company said the operating environment has been very hostile to its operations in recent times, hence, the need for the temporal suspension in order to reorganise and continue offering efficient services.
Many airlines in Nigeria have lately been lamenting the unprecedented hike in price of aviation fuel, inflation and other associated costs which negatively impact on their daily operations.
The management of the airline in a statement released on Monday said the suspension, would only be for scheduled passenger services operations, adding that “This does not in any way affect the Maintenance activities of the Approved Maintenance Organisation (AMO) otherwise known as AeroMRO, the Approved Training Organisation (ATO) also known as Aero Training School, the Helicopter and Charter Services operations.”
The company in the statement, revealed that it would use the opportunity to conduct maintenance of its aircrafts and resume a seemless air services.
“This decision was carefully considered and taken due to the fact that most of our aircrafts are currently undergoing Maintenance, resulting in our inability to offer a seamless and efficient service to our esteemed customers. We are working to bring these aircrafts back to service in the next few weeks, so we can continue to offer our passengers the safe, efficient, and reliable services that Aero Contractors is known for, which is the hallmark of Aero Contractors Company of Nig. Ltd.
“The past few months have been very challenging for the Aviation industry and the airline operators in particular. With the high cost of maintenance, skyrocketing fuel prices, inflation, and forex scarcity resulting in high foreign exchange rates. These are amongst the major components of airline operations.
“In the meantime, we are working assiduously to return to service as quickly as possible, and do assure our esteemed customers and stakeholders of our determination, that our short absence will not create any major void in the market, as we are coordinating with our business partners to ensure minimum discomfort to ticket holders.
“As members of Spring Alliance (a commercial alliance with member airlines providing mutual support in the area of operations), we are liaising with our partner airlines to minimise the impact on our esteemed customers.
“Our customer service team will be working to help affected esteemed customers reach their destinations.
“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused to our esteemed customers and promise to return to service as soon as possible.
“We thank you in advance for your cooperation and understanding at this time.”
Recall that the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) had in May this year announced plan to shutdown operations due to rising cost of aviation fuel. This was, however, shelved and the continued operating under harsh economic realities.
The airlines had also increased their flight base fare within the last five months in a bid to meet the operating cost which keeps soaring everyday.
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Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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