One of Nigeria’s most vibrant airline, Aero Contractors said it is laying off 60% of its workforce.
The company issued a press statement through its media consultants saying:
“This is simply not sustainable for the airline. The huge monthly salary associated with a bloated workforce will eventually kill the airline, which is not the intention of the current government”.
“Aero Contractors currently has aircraft-to-employee ratio of 1:500, which analysts believe is perhaps the worst in the history of global aviation industry.”
“Government’s intervention in Aero was to save it from total collapse. Therefore, all steps such as this (issuance of redundancy letters), to ensure its survival, must be put into consideration to save the airline.
“This decision will immediately reduce the whooping operational cost, which has been stifling Aero; enable the management [to] bring in more aircraft through savings from overheads, pay for C-checks as well as enable Aero [to] have a more manageable and committed workforce in line with international best practices of 50 to 60 personnel to one aircraft unlike what obtains in Aero at the moment.”
Aero Contractors in its good old days had over 18 aircrafts plying the length and breadth of Nigeria. Arik Air, the largest local carrier with international operations went into Receivership last month after the Asset Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON took over the highly indebted airline.
