Breaking: Nigeria’s Oldest Airline, Aero Contractors, Suspends Scheduled Flight Operations

Chinedu Eze

Nigeria’s oldest airline, Aero Contractors, has announced the suspension of flight operations.

The airline in a statement said this was due to challenging operational environment.

In May, THISDAY reported that the airline, which had operated for 61years, might go under.

The company in a statement said, “Due to the impact of the challenging operating environment on our daily operations, the management of Aero Contractors Company of Nig. Ltd. wish to announce the temporary suspension of its scheduled passenger services operations with effect from Wednesday, July 20, 2022. 

“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.

“This decision was carefully considered and taken due to the fact that most of our aircraft 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 aircraft 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 airline said.

It also explained that the past few months had 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, adding that 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,” the airline also said.

But the signs that the airline may go under emerged two months ago when the airline fleet was reduced to two aged aircraft, Bombardier Dash 8-300 and Boeing 737-500 in their early 30s and totally bereft of operating cash, which brought the airline down to its knees and it became moribund.

THISDAY learnt that the airline’s bad situation was exacerbated by the high cost of aviation fuel, which price has continued to spiral, threatening the operations of other domestic carriers.

The airline, which had provided shuttle service for oil and gas industry for decades and extended its service to scheduled flight operations since 2000 was burdened by about N50 billion debt overhang.

THISDAY investigations revealed that recession occasioned by the COVID-19 lockdown and protracted low season after December heavy passenger traffic demand, culminated in the financial drought of the airline.

Before this announcement by the management, the airline was finding it difficult to fuel its existing fleet.

Two months ago the management of the airline confirmed to THISDAY the precarious state of the airline and identified factors that led to debilitating condition of the indigenous carrier and pointed out that the Aero could stop operation at any time because the management was finding it increasingly difficult to keep the aircraft in the airspace.

“Maintenance cost is high, foreign exchange is not available and the high fuel price in addition to the fact that after the high Christmas season, there was low passenger traffic from later January till Easter period. Then we are also contending with overhead, which is so much. When you have no traffic and what you are generating cannot defray operating cost, you cannot survive. We are still operating but from the rate we are going we may shut down anytime,” the airline told THISDAY two months ago.

THISDAY also learnt that because the aircraft in the fleet were old and breakdown very often, the cost of maintenance was high, “and spares have to be imported and even insuring the aircraft requires foreign exchange.”

Aero Contractors had faced the threat of going under few years ago and had even stopped scheduled flight service when it was rejuvenated when the immediate past CEO of the airline, Captain Ado Sanusi took it over in February 2017.

The airline which was under receivership was being managed by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), which initially pumped money into the airline, but that effort sustained it for some time, but was fully revived when Sanusi rekindled and expanded its aircraft maintenance branch, which is the department along with charter and training services that would continue to operate after the shut down of its flight schedule services.