Aero returns to full operations with 34,000 passengers monthly

Nigeria’s oldest airline, Aero Contractors, at the weekend unveiled new uniform accessories for its cabin crew saying it has grown its passenger base from 8000 per month to 34,000 in the last 24 months.

The management of the airline was taken over by the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) since 2016 with Capt. Ado Sanusi appointed as the managing director.

Speaking at the Murtala Muhammed Airport domestic terminal (MMA2), Lagos, at the weekend during the launch of the new uniform, Sanusi explained that the competitiveness of the airline has improved tremendously with more routes opened, and that it has recommenced its helicopter services in the Niger Delta region and the Gulf of Guinea.

He said, “First of all, we celebrate the new face of our cabin crew of Aero Contractors and we are unveiling the success we have achieved over the past 24 months, in the state of managing the airline.

“So the first thing we did was to unveil the new face of the cabin services and to also tell you we have opened new routes and are reinstating those we suspended to serve our passengers better.

“We are starting new routes and we are reinstating already existing routes that were suspended in the past. When I joined, we started with eight flights a day all centred around Abuja and Port Harcourt.

“However, in the past 24 months we have increased to over 30 flights a day. We were carrying close to 8,000 passengers a month but now we are almost 32,000-33,000 passengers a month.”

Some of the routes that have been reintroduced, according to him, are Kano, Asaba, Warri, Uyo and Yola, adding, “we are also going to the South East, Owerri and Enugu.”

On the availability of equipment to fly the airline’s proposed routes, Captain Sanusi said from the one aircraft met in 2017, the airline has grown its fleet through its homegrown maintenance of its underserviced fleet and expressed plans to acquire more.

He said the airline had grown its aircraft fleet to 16 using the carrier’s maintenance facility, adding that it has increased its helicopter fleet from three to seven with plans to make it 10 to effectively serve the oil and gas business community.

The Cabin Service Manager, Mrs. Kudirat Bello, said many passengers were not aware that Aero had returned to full-scale operations.

“We just want to tell our passengers that we are back with increased fleet, new routes, impeccable service delivery from our crew and we have also changed the accessories on our crew uniform to enhance the beauty,” she said.