Nigerian airlines forced to disengage staff as industry crisis worsens

The crisis rocking the Nigerian aviation industry is taking a worse turn as airlines have been forced to lay off their workers.

Although there is hope that the crisis may be mitigated, this can only happen when the affected airlines start full operations. Until then, the disengaged staff will have to wait without their jobs.

While some operational staff of the airlines still have their jobs intact, some other workers who are associated with the daily operations of the airlines have been asked to hold on as the crisis has affected some parts of operations which have to do with their jobs.

One of the affected airlines, Dana Air, had announced that although the airline has been out of operations for a while, it hoped to resume operations in September.

Recall Aero Contractors and Dana Air had both shut down operations in July over the dwindling fortunes of the aviation industry.

Aero had announced the shutdown of its operations on Monday, July 18, 2022, while Dana Air announced an indefinite shutdown of flight operations on Wednesday, July 20, 2022.

Their reasons were mainly based on the high prices of Jet A1 fuel, foreign exchange scarcity and its inability to maintain its aircrafts.

The crisis further led to an increase in the price of plane tickets as the cost of JetA1 jumped from less than N300/litre to over N800/litre within a few months.

The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) had urged the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA), to reduce the devastating impact of the price increase of Jet A1 on airlines by removing the 25 percent fuel surcharge.

Some aviation workers, however, expressed hopes that once the airlines overcome this critical period, it was certain the disengaged workers would be recalled.