How we’ll turn around Arik Air, by Bani

The management of Arik Air said it has made On Time Performance (OTP) one of the cardinal objectives of returning the airline to its prime position.

Before now, the airline’s operations were marred by lack of respect for on-time departure, which affected passengers’ confidence in the carrier to take them to their destinations as scheduled.

Head of Commercial Arik Air, Tosan Bani, told Woleshadare.net that what they had done was to gain the confidence of their suppliers especially the oil marketers, stressing that one problem the old management had was their inability to get credit facility from oil marketers and this was responsible for the service disruption experienced then.

Bani noted that oil marketers are ready to do business with the carrier because they now have the capacity to pay their bills as and when due.

He said, “Our On-Time-Performance (OTP) now averages 85 per cent and 90 per cent and we are continuously improving through training, active front desk leadership and feedback management.

“It is not Uhuru yet but we have improved. One of the issues in the past was the late payment of staff salaries but with the coming of our partners, AMCON, staff salaries are now paid as and when due. This has boosted the morale of the generality of the staff and they are happy performing their roles.”

He explained that the airline’s senior management are not just looking at the short term, but working tirelessly to put into place a comprehensive plan of action to improve customer service and increase passenger loyalty.

His words, “We want to get back to being close to our customers, and we want every person in the organization to commit themselves to this goal. We know it will take some time, but we also know their future depends on it.

“Arik Air has a robust commercial division that is constantly looking at how to develop products to meet the unique needs of its customers. In the next few weeks more products will be rolled out. We currently have a group, charter and corporate products to meet the needs of customers”.

“Like I mentioned earlier, what we have done is to streamline our operations and optimize flight schedules in line with international best practices.”

He listed the airline’s good safety record and quality of its airplanes and the youngest fleet as its unique selling point, coupled with its maintenance programme which by any standard ranks high.

The carrier, he reiterated has also initiated brand active building scheme, chief of which is good on-time performance and staff training.

It would be recalled that the inability of the former owners of the carrier to manage the success of the airline at inception, coupled with complacency robbed off on ground and technical staff led it to its pitiable state until the takeover of the company by the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) over alleged N500billion debts.

Before now, Arik flights to different destinations operated late or were cancelled without prior notice. Passengers both on international and domestic route had bitter experiences from passengers who dreaded to travel with the airlines.

There were deluge of complaints, which did calculated damage on the Arik brand. The airline lost grounds with its competitors. Arik was no longer the preferred choice of passengers. They lost both high end clientele and the middle class market to their competitors.

Wole Shadare