Arik Air needs investment to survive, not feud with AMCON, aviation workers cry out

The National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) has stated that there’s a need to invest in Arik Air for the airline company to survive.

NUATE said the investment is what Arik Air needs, not the ongoing dispute between the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and the owners of the airline.

The aviation workers made their stance known in a statement issued by NUATE general secretary, Ocheme Aba, on Monday.

NUATE called for the intervention of the incoming aviation minister, to ensure that the objectives of the stakeholders are in the interest of the Receivers Manager, the workers, other creditors of Arik Air and others.

According to Aba, the objective of Arik Air owners is to get back their company, however, the plan of AMCON for the airline is not certain.

Part of the statement reads: “We consider that ultimately, the incoming Minister of Aviation will have to give due consideration with view of fostering the needed synergy among all stakeholders to assure that the foregoing objectives are positively delivered in the interest of the owners, the Receivers Manager, the workers, other creditors of Arik Air, and the aviation industry at large. This is necessarily the duty of government.”

READ ALSO:Arik Air sacks ‘treacherous’ pilots, cancels flights

The workers further stated: “It is not clear what the mind of AMCON is reading right now. But, it is clear to us what the mind of the owners of Arik is reading; to get back their company.

“The purpose of this intervention is to assist to unite the minds of the owners with the Receivers in the direction that can, through practical deliverables, arrive at the point where a healthy Arik Air can return to normalcy at the peak of the Nigerian airline industry where it rightly belongs.

“We sincerely appeal to all parties to agree to a truce and start now to work in alliance to assure the health of the Airline. A healthy Arik Air should be the objective, and in fact the interest, of all. Anything else will do no one any good.”

NUATE said the disagreement between AMCOn and the owners of Arik Air is a feud involving gladiators, and it won’t favour the airline, “A recognition of this fact will alter the present state of adversity/animosity between the two gladiators which has been anything but helpful,” the statement reads.

“If the two parties agree to work together, and receive the understanding of the workforce, it is our concrete belief that a pathway out of the doldrums will be not too difficult to chart,” NUATE said in the statement.

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