A legal battle is in the offing between the Nigerian airlines and NAHCO over the loss of revenue incurred during the strike embarked upon by NAHCO workers on Monday which grounded operations at airports across the country.
Captain Ado Sanusi, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Aero Contractors, disclosed the plans to sue the organization on Tuesday.
“The unions will claim that it is their right to strike. Unfortunately, the passengers and the airlines are the ones that suffer the most, not the handling company.
“In a normal society, due process will be followed before a strike action should take place and I think, the NCAA should investigate fully and find out exactly whether the unions followed due process before they went on strike.
“If they did, what did the handling company do? Did they inform the passengers through the airlines so that passengers do not have to go to the airports and the airlines might have to cancel flights,” Sanusi said in an interview on Arise TV monitored by Persecondnews.
“Some of the international flights went back empty. Some were diverted, while some were delayed putting Nigeria in a bad light internationally.
“Handling is very critical for the safe operation of airlines. When you have a strike like this, there are some places you don’t allow the strike to affect. Why will they go to that level of depriving passengers of entering airplanes? I don’t think there should be a flight disruption.
“This should be taken seriously by the Federal Government. Anyone who disrupts flight service should be charged because it amounts to economic damage.
“I doubt if the lawsuit will start but anyway, Aero contractors lost a lot of money. We canceled most of our morning flights.
“The lawsuit will be probably to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority first and co-join NAHCO and the rest to make it effective because there should be an investigation to find out whether due process was followed and what are the rules of engagement when you are embarking on a strike especially when you provide critical services in that sector,” Sanusi said.
Persecondnews recalls that the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) and the Air Transport Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSAN) had declared strike on Monday after issuing a five-day notice to the management of NAHCO.
NAHCO handles check-in, boarding and ramp services for Air Peace, Qatar Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Air France/KLM, Delta Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Turkish Air, ASKY and Rwanda Air among others.
Nigeria has only two handlers, NAHCO and Skyway Aviation Handling Company Plc (SAHCO).
The strike affected the flight operations of airlines handled by NAHCO, creating flight disruptions.
Passengers and airlines are counting losses as flights were canceled.
Air Peace canceled over eight flights in Abuja, which led to over N500m loss, according to the station manager, kachollom Nyam-zang.
“That information didn’t come on time and we had passengers. We had to give them updates. It is going typo take a few days for us to adjust,” Nyam-zang also told Arise TV.
Emirates and other international airlines handled by NAHCO departed empty, losing huge revenues.
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