Okonkwo: Cooperation among Nigerian Airlines will Beget Immense Benefits thisdaylive.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thisdaylive.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Chinedu Eze
New Nigerian Carrier, the United Nigeria Airlines has completed plan to build Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in Enugu.
The aim is to slash the cost of maintenance by about 40 per cent.
This was disclosed by the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company, Obiora Okonkwo, when he led the management team of the airline to an interactive session with journalists in Lagos, on Wednesday.
When completed the facility would serve airlines in West and Central Africa and would save a projected $500 million for Nigerian airlines, which is the cost of ferrying aircraft overseas, payment for allowances for flight crew and rented space for aircraft, as maintenance schedule could delay aircraft due for checks for months.
FG plans another bailout for the sector
Unrepatriated funds of foreign airlines in Nigeria and 16 other African countries have been estimated at $601 million. x
The stuck fund is proceeds of ticket sales made in local currency but blocked due to the non-availability of foreign exchange to recoup it.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) disclosed as it appealed to African governments to release funds and further support local carriers to increase the chances of survival amid the downtime.
In a related development, the Federal Government is contemplating another batch of bailout funds for the aviation sector, after the release of N5 billion.
Congratulations, can you tell us about your new appointment?
I took over this position on the 4th of January 2021. I took over from Captain Ado Sanusi. So I am here now and I am looking forward to, at least, take the company to another level. Captain Sanusi has done wonderfully well. He was really good. He met a dying company and resuscitated it. He brought the company back to life. My own is to make it stronger from where he stopped. That is why right now I am here and I am focused and I will make sure that I try as much as possible to see that the staff are happy. This is because the greatest assets of any organisation that you have are your employees. In as much as I want to make them happy, we are constrained because of the situation in the global aviation industry due to the COVID-19 devastation. As you can see, the tourism industry has been hit so badly by this pandemic. So we are just trying to get out of it. God-willing from what we are seeing, hopefully, we will get out of
Azman suspension: Fares rise by 100% on Northern routes dailytrust.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailytrust.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.