CEO Explains Why Nigeria’s Oldest Airline Competing With Air Peace, Max Air Others Shut Down
- The CEO of Aero Contractors has explained how it has been able to navigate through hurdles in the last couple of years
- He explained how he was able to move the company to become viable in three years after the 2017 suspension of operations
- Upon his return to the company in 2022, he had to start afresh, leading the company into one with multiple achievements
Ado Sanusi, the managing director and CEO of Nigeria's oldest carrier, Aero Contractors, has opened up on the airline's challenges in the last few years.
In an interview with This Day, he explained his role in lifting the company back to its feet after it shut down in 2017 due to underperformance and other factors that affected it.
Source: UGC
In 2017, the company reportedly sacked 900 workers due to difficulty paying salaries and had to shut down.
In a similar development, the airline also shut down passenger flight operations in 2022.
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Resuscitating the airline
Upon his assumption in office in February 2017, Sanusi said they (the team) moved the company within the next three years to become a viable company, going from no aircraft to almost five aircraft.
He added that they also performed the first heavy check (C-check, aircraft maintenance) on the airplane and developed the MRO business.
But unfortunately, after he left for another assignment, things went south again.
He said:
“Then I left for another assignment, and unfortunately, things went down again in Aero Contractors, and I was reappointed in October 2022. When I came in 2022, things were worse than when I first met the company in 2017.
“The reason is that the airline was shut down, outstanding salaries were to be paid, and workers were de-motivated to work. Again, we looked at what we could do. We had no aircraft, but we took off from zero aircraft and are currently flying four airplanes. Then we are back paying salaries as soon as they are due.
“And we are enlarging the capability of the MRO. And we are bringing more aircraft. We moved the number of aircraft to about four and then paid salaries as at when due.”
He also added that his leadership had stabilised the company, adding that it is on the trajectory of recovery and hopes to bring in the fifth airplane in a few months.
He said:
“So I believe we are on the right path. It is a difficult situation, and the business environment that we find ourselves in is also difficult to operate. I mean, the country's economy and, of course, the harsh conditions and business have affected us, but we are still surviving.”
Once a market leader
Speaking on the domestic marketing environment, he said the company has maintained the market share as the foremost in the industry for a long time.
However, after the company started underperforming, it became distressed and lost the position of the significant market share.
Sanusi said when he took over the leadership position, the brand became strong again, although the planned market share was not attained.
Sanusi opined that high discipline and professionalism have made Aero Contractors a reputable name in the aviation industry.
However, he said that would only sustain the company for a short time as investment is needed to keep it going.
Nigerian airline expands operations one year after launch
Legit.ng earlier reported that Rano Air started a domestic passenger airlift from Katsina to Abuja and Kaduna to Lagos to lessen travellers' difficulty on the route.
In a statement, Auwalu Abdullahi Rano, the chairman of Rano, said the milestone was marked on January 21, 2024.
Before the development, the airline launched last year had been ferrying passengers from Abuja to Lagos Kano, Sokoto, and Maiduguri.
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Source: Legit.ng
