The Federal Airports of Nigeria (FAAN) workers’ union under the umbrella of the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and National Union of Pensioners (NUP) on Wednesday morning picketed Arik Airlines domestic operations at the General Aviation Terminal Lagos over alleged N12.5billion debt, thereby grounding the airline’s operations around the country.
Meanwhile, the action of the FAAN Union has forced the management of the airline to suspend all domestic operations for Wednesday.
This development has left the airline passengers stranded at the different airports across the country. At the GAT some of the passengers were seen making frantic effort to book for another flight.
Some of the passengers complained that the management of Arik Air left them in limbo concerning the situation as they keep pushing them up and down.
The passengers frowned against the inability of the management of Arik Airline to brief them ahead of the situation,
He stressed that they only got to the airport and were confronted with such a situation thus making them stranded for the indebtedness of the airline.
Speaking on the picketing of Arik Air, Vice Chairman, National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Comrade Idowu Adesola explained that the picketing was all about the refusal of Arik Airline to pay its N12.5 billion debt owe to FAAN.
Comrade Adesola said that Arik Airline would only be allowed to operate if the airline pay the sum of N7 billion with a promise that it would upset the remaining balance in a fixed date.
According to him:”It is all about Arik Air and all other debtors owing FAAN at the detriment of FAAN because FAAN had to have its revenue coming in by making all the necessary things available for aviation stakeholders and if those provisions are made, they need to pay for what they are utilising, now Arik Air is owing FAAN N12.5 billion, it was supposed to be N5.8 billion but they denied N3.4 billion on invoice rating. Now that it is N12.5 billion, they are not ready to pay and they are telling everybody that they are even bigger than the government, it is not just FAAN alone, they owe FAAN, NCAA and even NAMA and they owe some other people including their workers, they just paid their March salary recently which is not too good for somebody who has worked. So they believe that if Buhari is changing things, they are not ready to go along with Buhari to change things”
He explained further that:”We as workers we want to help Buhari to make changes for things to progress. In fact, I want to tell you that the bay out there, they (Arik Air) are not paying for it which is meant for National Carrier and presidency is not even looking into it, we are just talking about landing and parking charges as well as other facilities, if we are to talk of the bayn the money would have been more than that, they are not ready to do anything, they are flying free, they are landing free and they say if we come to them we will be crushed but God is with us and we will defeat and prevail over Arik Air. The negotiation is still on-going but if they can put down N7billion, we will allow them to operate with conditions that as soon are they going to pay up so that Buhari change and TSA matters can be put in place which will also help workers in FAAN”
A statement signed by Adebanji Ola, Arik spokesperson and made available to the media in Lagos stated that FAAN workers’ union on Wednesday morning domestic blocked the operations of Arik Air at the General Aviation Terminal of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
According to him, workers of the airline were prevented from gaining access to their duty posts thereby disrupting the day’s operations.
“The action by the workers’ union is connected with the long-standing and unsubstantiated claim by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) of spurious indebtedness of the airline to the agency which is now before a Federal High Court in Lagos at the instance of FAAN. For several months, the management of Arik Air and FAAN have been meeting to reconcile payment accounts between the two institutions. The reconciliation process is still ongoing until the latest actions by the union”, Banji said.
He said this is not the first time that FAAN workers’ union will be taking the laws into their hands by disrupting operations of Arik Air.
He maintained that, “the current situation is deeply out of control of Arik Air and the management of the airline has been compelled to suspend all domestic operations for today. This will remain in force until such a time the unfortunate situation is resolved. Arik Air sincerely apologize for the inconveniences the FAAN workers’ union action may have caused its esteemed passengers. We live to serve the needs of the people of the great nation Nigeria”.
Arik spokesperson concluded in his statement that: “We look forward to working collaboratively with FAAN and other aviation agencies to resolve the impasse and return to our core purpose of providing essential world class services to the people of Nigeria’.