FOR THE RECORD: AMCON Takes Over Arik Airlines

The Federal Government has come to the aid of Arik Airline which has been experiencing difficulties in recent times.

TheCable report continues:

According to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), the decision to intervene “clearly underscores the government’s commitment to instill sanity in the country’s aviation sector to prevent a major catastrophe”.

The airline will now be managed by Roy Ukpebo Ilegbodu, an aviation expert, under the receivership of Oluseye Opasanya, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

Hadi Sirika, minister of state for aviation, expressed the belief that the development will bring about stability in the airline.

“We believe that this appointment is timely and will stabilise the operations of the airline,” he said in a statement.

“This will enhance the long term economic value of Arik Air and revitalize the airline’s ailing operations as well as sustain safety standards, in view of Arik Air’s pivotal role in the Nigerian aviation sector.”

Sirika also pledged that the ministry of aviation would support the new management of the airline and ensure that all necessary steps are taken to ensure that there would be no undue disruption on Arik’s regular business operations.

AMCON said Arik, the largest local carrier, can now go back to regular and undisrupted operations to avoid “job losses, protect investors and stakeholder funds”.

“From all indications, respite may have come the way of Arik Airlines currently immersed in heavy financial debt burden that is threatening to permanently ground the airline,” AMCON said in a statement.

“For some time now, the airline, which carries about 55% of the load in the country, has been going through difficult times that are attributable to its bad corporate governance, erratic operational challenges, inability to pay staff salaries and heavy debt burden among other issues, which led to the call for authorities in the country to intervene before Arik goes under like many before it.”

Some of the issues that have affected Arik Air of late were confiscation of aircraft due to non-payment of leases, frequent flight delays, and constant fracas between its staff and aggrieved passengers.

On Tuesday, some passengers disrupted operations at its headquarters at the Lagos airport.

During the last yuletide season, passengers were stranded in airports all over the country due to Arik’s incessant flight delays and cancellations, which negatively affected the preference they enjoy from passengers.

“The airline is so overwhelmed to the extent that the worker’s wages are not paid for several months, leading to occasional confrontation between the management of Arik and different Aviation Unions in the country,” AMCON said.

“It was Arik’s inability to pay its workers for seven months that forced the United Labour Congress (ULC) and Engineers Union to recently shut the offices of the Airline across the country causing untold hardship to thousands of travelers and an embarrassment to the aviation sector in the country.

“Besides owing workers’ salaries, the Airline has also not been remitting the taxes of workers to relevant bodies thus also defrauding the country. The airline is also in perpetual default in its lease payments and insurance premium, leading to regular and embarrassing repossession of its aircraft by Lessors. Various class actions are pending against the airline all over the world.”

Nigerian Government Takes Over Biggest Airline, Arik Air

Associated Press reports that Nigeria's government is taking over the country's biggest airline, Arik Air, to "instill sanity" and prevent "a major catastrophe" in the aviation industry of Africa's most populous nation, the receivership corporation said Thursday.

Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria said the heavily indebted airline has not paid workers for months and has had aircraft seized for non-payment of leases. Arik has regularly cancelled flights because of lack of money to buy fuel, stranding thousands of passengers over the past year.

The statement came after Arik temporarily canceled service to New York and grounded 10 aircraft.

Arik is the biggest airline in West Africa and flies 55 percent of domestic flights in Nigeria as well as transcontinental routes to London and New York.

The statement said the government decision to intervene "clearly underscores a commitment to instill sanity in the country's aviation sector to prevent a major catastrophe."

It blamed Arik's "heavy financial debt burden, bad corporate governance, erratic operational challenges and other issues that required immediate intervention."

Airlines have been hard hit by Nigeria's currency crisis, with tickets paid in devalued naira but scarce foreign currency needed for fuel.

United Airlines and Iberia pulled out of Nigeria last year over the currency crisis, in which international airlines lost millions of dollars while the government blocked their remittances in foreign currency and the naira tumbled.

Two other Nigerian airlines stopped operating last year.