Air Peace has disclosed that the ongoing strike by staff of the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company PLC, (NAHCO) has cost the airline over 500 million naira.
Following the industrial action embarked on by the staff of the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO), Air Peace, Nigeria’s leading airline, has disclosed that the ongoing strike has cost the airline over 500 million naira.
The National Union of Air Transport Employees and the Air Transport Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, last week, gave NAHCO management a five-day warning strike due to the slow progress in salary review negotiations.
The company had asked that accelerated negotiation be continued in February to enable them to stabilize from the financial effect of its recent promotions.
Due to the recent development, the management of the airline, in a press release issued on Monday, stated that the ground handling company did not pre-inform them about the strike nor was a public notice issued, thus costing the Airline over N500M.
“Neither NAHCO nor the striking union informed us of an impending strike. Our staff reported to work and noticed an ongoing industrial action. If we were informed beforehand, we would have conveyed same to our passengers early enough.” The Airline stated
“Now, all morning flights and other subsequent flights have been disrupted- cancelled, delayed and rescheduled. This has cost us over 500 million naira as we operate over 100 flights daily. Passengers are also attacking our ground staff as they cannot fly.”
“We have notified the flying public of the strike but it is important to stress again that the action is by the staff of NAHCO, not Air Peace. It is an action against the Management of NAHCO, and Air Peace has nothing to do with it.”
“While we monitor the situation and hope things return to normal soon, we regret the impact of the disruptions on the travel plans of our passengers and implore them to desist from assaulting our staff. We are not responsible for the disruptions”, the airline added.
The unions gave the notice of strike prompting the management of the company to seek court intervention to prevent the industrial action but the unions were said to have walked out of the international airport on Monday morning, saying they were on strike and will not attend to any passengers.
