Arik Air (W3, Lagos) has received an injection of NGN1.5 billion (USD4.7 million) from the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) since being taken over by the state-owned body. The announcement was made by CEO Roy Ilegbodu at a press conference this week, reports The Premium Times.
AMCON took over management of the airline in February this year, after concerns that the business was failing. Ilegbodu said that when AMCON took over, it had paid out between NGN60 - 75 million (USD188,000 - 236,000) in customer refunds per week.
Ilegbodu was full of praise for AMCON's role, and was critical of Arik Air's previous management. The new management team has been working on appeasing creditors and paying outstanding staff salaries. Ilegbodu added that it had been troubling to discover just how few operational aircraft the airline had.
"It was quite interesting and disturbing for an airline with 30 airplanes on its books with only 10 functional," he said. Many aircraft had been cannibalised for spare parts.
Arik Air has scaled back its international operations in a bid to reduce operating costs, and Ilegbodu said that they were in no hurry to scale back up. He said they would wait until the situation with creditors was normalised and a KPMG audit had been completed.
The rosy picture painted by Ilegbodu has been disputed by an 'aviation insider' who spoke with Nigerian business site Investors King.
"The AMCON imposed management has been economical with the truth about so many things," the anonymous 'insider' said. "Spare parts left behind by the management that the corporation removed was valued at USD150 million." The source also referred to the NGN1.5 billion injection as 'paltry'.
