Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, has condemned what it described as the recent upsurge in the use of unions to threaten, harass and intimidate Nigerian airlines, saying such actions violate the rights of airlines to a safe, secure operational and business environment
Rising from a meeting held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, the airlines, in a communiqué, said Air Peace alone had more than 70 of its flights affected, with estimated losses of over N2 billion, while more than 30 flights operated by United Nigeria Airlines were affected, impacting about 13,000 passengers based on the aircraft and sectors scheduled for the day.
They expressed sadness that the airlines had to bear the unwarranted burden of rebooking passengers, offering accommodation, paying refunds, repositioning crew, rescheduling aircraft and incurring other recovery costs in an already harsh operating environment characterised by unprecedentedly high fuel costs and very high foreign exchange-based maintenance costs.