With only five out of 13 aircraft still in operation and paucity of funds for its operation, Aero Contractors, one of the shining stars of Nigeria’s indigenous carriers with so much promise is now moribund.
The airline, which has operated for over 10 years in Nigeria, was a beckon of hope in the days of yore. Before the birth of Arik Air Aero used to have the longest queues at its check-in desks and years after that it still was controlling over 35 per cent of the domestic passenger market.
But few years ago the company took critical decisions that undermined its future. That was when it acquired six Boeing 737-500 at inflated costs, which many in the industry described as ill-advised acquisition. THISDAY learnt then that Aero became a victim of a sour deal, which some interest group padded their pockets at the expense of the company. Oceanic Bank funneled money through its subsidiary, Oceanic Capital and seven aircraft were earmarked to be purchased, but six were eventually purchased without a refund and the aircraft, which were supposed to be purchased $3 million, were allegedly inflated to $7 million and they were purchased from the Arizona aircraft graveyard in the US. The toxic loan was inherited by Ecobank, which handed it over to Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON).
In a petition to the new management of AMCON, written by the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), the petitioners noted that “AMCON took over Aero from Ecobank at undisclosed discounted rate and made decision to invest in Aero and turn the fortunes of the company around.”
But unfortunately AMCON did not turn around the fortunes of the company. The problem of aero became glaring when Ecobank took over Oceanic and ended the shenanigan between Aero and Oceanic whereby the airline was made to have access to operational funds without accountability.
It was after the stoppage of unmerited funds that Aero introduced some marketing strategies and started operating as low cost airline. It stopped the fringes like serving snack on-board and introduced promo ticket, which was later, found out to be a gimmick to defraud the public.
Desperate to earn operational cash, the airline sold one-hour flight ticket for N9000. Passengers descended on the airline’s website like bees on honey and they booked and over booked. Aero also adopted a schedule time whereby it advertised two take off time. The first it would advertise on its booking site but less than 24 hours before the flight time it would send another take off time to fewer number of passengers that bought the same ticket and it used to be one hour behind the initially advertised time. This was used to disqualify passengers who were qualified to travel. There were occasions passengers would arrive at the airport hoping to board their flights and for them to see the same flight taxing to the runway or already airborne.
Such excesses were desperate move by the airline to survive at the expense of passengers because the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) was too weak to check excesses of the airline despite avalanche of complaints.
The airline instead of serving snacks on-board decided to sell them. With huge clientele that believe so much in Aero, many passengers never complained. But that was before other airlines improved their on-time performance and Aero began to lose its reputation as a more reliable on-time airline. It lost its huge market to other carriers and was forced to start serving snacks on-board.
But the problem of Aero was numerous. There was alleged insincerity in the way AMCON managed Aero. Insiders said after taking over Aero, AMCON had over 80 per cent control of the company. In fact, industry observers said that AMCON should not have divested any percentage to the Ibru family that originally owned the airline because what it inherited were entirely liabilities. So in allegedly non-transparent deal, AMCON divested part of its 100 per cent ownership and instead of having absolute control of the company, it gave the former owners substantial seat in the management.
NUATE had alleged in the petition to AMCON that the later purposely installed a compromised management and incompetent expatriates even when more qualified Nigerians could effectively resuscitate and bring the airline back to its glorious days.
“The company structure was deliberately sabotaged to create fictitious positions that they could use to plant their cronies who could facilitate looting the money of the company. The lack of company structure has led to a situation where staff performance cannot be measured to improve their customer service and also improve their performance,” NUATE wrote.
It is obvious that the funds of the company are grossly mismanaged and that explains why the airline was unable to take its eight aircraft on ground for maintenance checks. Out of 13 aircraft the once glorious airline is now operating five and whenever any of the five comes to C-check it may be dropped instead of ferrying it for maintenance overseas because despite the revenue the airline generates every day, the structure in place cannot enable it save money for maintenance.
NUATE said there is urgent need for proper management team of technocrats and upright characters to take over the management of the company and address the wrongs in the system in order to reposition the company to its enviable height.
