Aero returns with new management structure

THE Nigeria oldest airline, Aero Contractors which voluntarily suspended its operations five months ago has returned with the managing director, Captain Ado Sanusi promising that the airline will not repeat the earlier mistakes made in the past that threw the airline into myriad of challenges.

Speaking at the unveiling of the airline’s Boeing 737 and Dash-eight aircraft that will be used to service 10 destinations, Sanusi, who invited spiritual leaders from the two major faiths to commit the airline’s return to the hands of God, announced the restructuring of the airline into four business developments units namely; the Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO), the Fixed Wing airline operations, the Rotary Wing helicopter services and the Aero Training School.

“I can guarantee you that we have studied what we have done in the past, we have looked at what actually caused the failures of the past and we are very determined not to repeat the same mistake and expect different result. Therefore, we are very determined; we have our team of experts that are very experienced in seeing what has happened before. May be that is why it took us a little longer to come back because we were studying and making sure that when we relaunch, we launch differently and we are confidence that the mistakes of the past will not repeat itself.”

According to the MD “Aero Contractors is recommencing operations with a new management as you can see. Now, we have a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The new improved Aero Contractors was structured in such a way that it is transformed in four strategic business units and these four will support each other.

“We have the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility, which you are aware of. We are improving it and doing a lot of extension to look into other aircraft types like NG, Embraer products and probably, Airbus products for maintenance.

“We are also looking at the rotary wing, which is another strategic business unit. We intend to revitalise that business unit with more helicopters because we believe there is future and more explorations in that segment of the market. We will do some investments and probably get more helicopters to revive that part of the business.

“We are also improving the strategic business unit of training. If that is approved by the Nigerian Civil Aviation (NCAA) to conduct training for a third party, it will cater for the entire Aero Contractors need for training. So, it will cut our cost and we will also provide the standard and excellent training for third party.”

While commending its customers for showing understanding while the airline was out of operations, Sanusi promised them an exciting time in its return saying: “People may ask what we are bringing to the flying public; first, we are going to have a new experience for the flying public. That means we are coming with products that will cater for the public.

“We understand the public have faced a lot of hardship due to capacity reduction in the airline industry and this has also resulted into price increase. We will like to stabilise the market, we would bring a lot of capacity into the system and especially during this Christmas season, we believe with the hardship that Nigerians are going through, we should be able to provide an equipment where we will transport people to their loved ones with ease.”