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Air Nigeria Moves to Sack workers as GE Repossesses its Planes

By on July 5, 2012

The fortunes of Air Nigeria seem to have taken an even sharper turn for the worse as its lessor General Electric Commercial Aviation Services has moved to repossess four of the Boeing 737-300 it leased to the company.

CEO of Air Nigeria, Kinfe Kahssaye, told journalists yesterday that the company was to return the four aircraft to GE in the near future.

He said, “GECAS has written to us, telling us they want to repossess their four Boeing 737-300 planes in our fleet. And we have told them no problems, they could go ahead. You know GECAS has been so concerned that our planes have been on the ground for too long following the grounding of our domestic and regional operations by NCAA about two weeks ago.

“So, they are in the process of repossessing the planes. You know the Cape Town Convention allows foreign lessors to repossess their planes whenever they want to. So, they are in the process of doing that.”

“We have 12 planes in our fleet. There are eight other planes still in our fleet. So, we can still work with these,” he added.

The CEO also stated it would have to cut back on its labour force, although he did not indicate how many staff would be terminated as a result of the development.

He said, “Definitely, when there is reduction in the number of planes, there will be reduction in staff number. So, we are in the process but we don’t know the number of people that will be laid off.”

Some staff of the company not wanting to be identified said the airline was owing them salary arrears and they were fearful of the financial situation of the company.