Aero Contractors Suspend Flight Operations Indefinitely

Nigeria’s oldest surviving private airline, Aero Contractors, has announced a temporary suspension of passenger flight operations from Wednesday, July 20, due to the impact of the challenging environment on its daily operations.

The management of the airline said its operations will be suspended due to the fact that most of its aircraft are currently undergoing maintenance, resulting in an inability to offer a seamless and efficient service to its customers.

This disclosure is contained in a statement titled, ‘Aero suspends scheduled commercial flight operations’, issued by Aero Contractors on Monday, July 18, 2022, and can be seen on its official Twitter account.

The airline which did not indicate when it will resume operations, said that the suspension will not affect the maintenance activities of the Approved Maintenance Organisation (AMO).

Aero said that the past few months have been very challenging for the aviation industry and airline operators in particular, with high cost of maintenance, skyrocketing fuel prices, inflation and forex scarcity, resulting in high foreign exchange rate.

The statement from Aero Contractors partly reads, ‘’Due to the impact of challenging operating environment on our daily operations, the management of Aero Contractors Company of Nig. Ltd wishes to announce the temporary suspension of its scheduled passenger service 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.

‘’The decision was carefully considered and taken due to the fact that most of our aircrafts 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.’’

Aero apologised to its customers for the inconvenience and promised to return to service as soon as possible.

It added, “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.

“We thank you in advance for your cooperation and understanding at this time.”

The aviation industry in Nigeria has been heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, has been further challenged in recent times due to the high cost of aviation fuel.

Barely a month ago, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) had disclosed that 3 local airlines may shut its operations in the country due to to the unbearable cost of operations, as the cost of Jet-A1, popularly known as, aviation fuel had gone above N700 per litre in Nigeria

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