Aero severes Skyborne pact, sacks 100 workers

One of Nigeria’s troubled airlines, Aero Contractors today sacked over a hundred support staff.

But the management of the airline in a statement by its media consultant, Simon Tumba said the carrier only reviewed contract with Skyborne

Tumba stated that in the course of reorgansing and repositioning its business, Aero Contractors has reviewed its relationship with Skyborne by cutting down some of the services required from the company.

“This will help the company to invest more resources to enhance customer service. For the record Aero has not sacked any of its staff.”

Most of those affected by the sack were support staff who had spent some few years with the carrier.

A source added that some departments and workers were outsourced by the management, stressing that since the airline no longer required their services, it was better for them to be relieved of their jobs, insisting that no staff of the airline was affected by the management decision.

He said, “Those laid off were not staff of our airline. You know in Aero, some departments and duties are outsourced. So what the management did was not to renew their contracts once it expired.

“I can tell you that our staff are intact and we don’t have the plans to retrench workers. We didn’t have the need of those outsourced and we felt they should be withdrawn from our services.”

A letter to one of the affected workers said that the sacking was as a result of the ongoing restructuring in the airline.

The letter reads in part, “Dear colleague, in the light of the ongoing restructuring at Aero, we regret to inform you that your services are no longer required and employment with SBL terminated with immediate effect.

“Please, return all company properties to your Manager/Supervisor by 8am on 28/04/2016. We regret any inconvenience caused.”

It would be recalled that Aero Contractors had been in the news in the past months for the wrong reasons as allegation of corruption and diversion of funds was leveled against past management.

In an attempt to rebuild the airline, Asset Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON, which owned over 70 per cent shares in the company appointed the immediate past Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Fola Akinkuotu as its Managing Director.