Aero Contractors management accused of attempt to devalue airline

Some workers of Aero Contractors have accused the management of the airline, backed by the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) of attempt to devalue the airline in a bid to sell it to its “cronies.”

The workers also accused the management of going against the Presidential Executive Order on expatriate quota by hiring non-nationals (Ethiopians) for aircraft maintenance on B737-600/700/800/900, despite the fact that there are Nigerians who have the competence for the task at hand.

This came just as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the airline, Captain Abdullahi Mahmood has insisted that the airline never violated any expatriate quota, saying that the airline had about 58 expatriate quota approval, while only 16 experts were presently engaged by the airline.

While accusing the airline management, the workers equally  purported that the rotary wing of the airline, which about a decade ago had over 10 helicopters, no longer has a single aircraft in its fleet, thereby losing all contracts due to lack of serviceable aircraft to service clients.

According to a source within the airline, one of the aircraft in the fleet of the airline with the registration mark: 5N-BJO was intentionally kept on ground for the entire 2021 till date without generating revenue for the company, alleging that all were in an attempt to run the company aground

The concerned workers further complained that prior to the engagement of the non-nationals, adverts were not made for the job description, while those hired had not worked for a day on the specified aircraft since they arrived the country in January 2020.

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The workers have also accused the airline management of either conniving with or deceiving the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to issue validation to non-nationals on aircraft that nationals could maintain satisfactorily a situation that has forced many Nigerian technical staff working with the airline to resign due to the inhuman working conditions they were subjected to by the management.

“Instead of Aero management to seek ways to improve on the working conditions, they are making plans to hire more Ethiopians who are paid in foreign currency (dollars) by far more than nationals for same job description.

“Their housing, feeding and transport are also provided, added to the more leave days and flight tickets every eight weeks to their home country. Not much information is available on the role the Ministry of Interior plays this, whether they are in the dark or complicit in all these.”

The aggrieved workers claimed that the last salary review for the workers was in 2008, about 14 years ago while the current salary structure of pilots fall in far below industry standards compared to what is offered in other airlines, stressing that in a bid to get pilots, Aero Contractors introduced sector pay, meaning payment based on commission and how many flights you make within a month which the workers said has put a price tag on safety as the pilots would be wrongly motivated to weather all odds, fatigue, inclement weather and other conditions that could mitigate safe flight for financial gains.

While responding, the CEO of the airline said that most of the allegations leveled against the management were false, particularly debunking the redeployment of Arik Air staff to the airline.

He explained that only one staff from Arik Air was redeployed to Aero just as he clarified that the redeployed staff was on secondment to the Commercial Department of Aero with the sole aim of undertaking some integration of systems to boost the airline’s sales, while his salary is being paid by Arik Air.

Also, on the lease of two Airbus A320 aircraft, the CEO explained that only one Airbus A320 was flying with the airline under the JV agreement, which he said was augmenting some of its sectors.

On the alleged violation of expatriate quota by the management, Mahmood pointed out that the airline had never violated any expatriate quota saying: “Aero has about 58 expatriate quotas and there are only about 16 experts in the company, including pilots and engineers. These are technical people helping us in our MRO, working 24 hours daily in shifts.