Foremost Nigeria airline Aero Contractors appears to be on precipice following recurrent bickering between the management and labour unions in the company as another round of crisis brewed up yesterday in Lagos.

The airline management, one of the oldest airlines in Nigeria in recent time has come under attack by its staff who accused top officials of the company in collaboration with officials of the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) of financial misappropriation.

Another round of labour protest yesterday at the airline cooperate headquarters in Ikeja almost disrupt it entire operations as labour unions in the sector vowed not to leave any stone unturned in ensuring that all labour related matters were resolved without victimisation of any worker to ensure the survival of the airline.

At present, the airline has six serviceable operational aircraft as against its 11 serviceable aircraft in its fleet, reports indicates the company is unable to ferry others abroad for routine maintenance.

Aero in a statement yesterday described the activities of the labour group as lacking procedure,

Saying “Air We find the attitude of these Associations unacceptable and their disposition towards our company in relation to their biased stand regarding the present issue has led the management of our company to conclude that, in future, these Associations will attempt to frustrate our company’s efforts towards maintaining staff discipline if left unchecked”.

Labour leaders have threatened a showdown with the management of the airline over recent unsavory developments in the company.

ATSSSAN President, Benjamin Okewu told journalists that the management would not be allow to kill the airline in order to cover up their misdeeds while the union request for a scrutiny of the company’s books.

Okewu disclosed AMCON has pumped in millions of naira into Aero Contractors but that the airline continued to nose dive.

Okewu said ” after investigation by the unions, it was discovered instead of acquiring more planes the airline was going down and that the money was not used for what it was meant for adding that records showed that the money was transferred into other ventures from Aero account.

The unions have called on EFCC to come in and investigate the activities of the airline, We discovered from our investigation that aircraft engine which ought to have been leased for $40,000 elsewhere were being leased by Aero Contractors for $70,000. A lot of fraudulent activities took place,”
http://www.peoplesdailyng.com/aero-labour-rift-deepens-as-aircraft-deplete/