Sell Arik, Aero Contractor Airlines To New Investors, FG Urged

An Aviation expert, Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd), has called on the federal government to sell off Arik Air and Aero contractors airlines in order to recover its debt.

Ojikutu, while speaking exclusively to LEADERSHIP, said handing over the two airlines to the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), was a mistake.

According to him, AMCON lacks requisite aviation knowledge to manage and make a commercial airline viable.

Ojikutu said, “Beyond the mistakes of handing over the airline and Aero to AMCON that has no idea about commercial management of an airline, what would have solve the problem of the debt recovery from Arik and Aero would have been to assess their local and international assets and liabilities, look for a credible foreign technical partners and credible Nigerian investors to buy the two airlines.”

He, however, stated that the two airlines can be designated flag carriers.

“The government can continuously conduct regular financial audits for five years and if the reports are substantially sound, designate them as flag carriers but not before the selling of 25 per cent of their shares to the public.

“But, on the contrary, the management was left solely to AMCON that ended up selling the Arik Airlines aircraft out without any reference to the responsible government authority on the receivership that was given to it on the airlines. The number of the aircraft left in the airline fleet is less than 50% of the original numbers,” he stated.