Arik Air expresses its
dismay and disappointment that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)
has once again disrupted its operations at the domestic General Aviation
Terminal and international terminal of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, as workers
of the agency prevented Arik Air from gaining access to the Airside of both
terminals.
Access to the Airside is
critical and fundamental to the airline’s operations for moving catering,
supplies and other sundry items to the aircraft, as well as the movement of its
personnel to ready the aircraft for departure.
This access is also
necessary for the airline to conduct secondary security screening, mandatory
security checks and for securing the aircraft at all times in line with
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards and recommended
practice.
This is not the first time
that FAAN has taken the law into its own hands as it had resorted to such
strong-arm tactics against the airline in the past and most recently in May
this year.
It is already in the
public domain that Arik Air and FAAN have a lingering disagreement on the
long-standing and unsubstantiated claim by FAAN of spurious indebtedness of the
airline to the agency which is now before the Federal High Court in Lagos, at the
instance of FAAN.
Both sides were
reconciling payment accounts between the
institutions over the charges paid by Arik Air to date and in this
regard ,Arik Air has been providing all the needed assistance and cooperation
to conclude the reconciliation process.
However, FAAN has shown
total disregard for the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by carrying out
such disruptive action again.
In Suit No:
FHC/L/CS/1558/2015 brought by FAAN against Arik Air before a Federal High Court
in Lagos, the court on 20 June, 2016had ordered that both parties maintain
status quo ante-bellum until Ruling on the Ex-parte is delivered.
The matter was further adjourned to 10
October, 2016.
On several occasions in
the past weeks, Arik Air has equally served the order of the court to FAAN
since they claimed ignorance of the ruling.
Blatant defiance of the laws of the country
and disrespect to the High Court should not be tolerated and we appeal to the
judiciary to intervene in this matter and take appropriate action to uphold the
laws of the nation.
This unjustifiable
disruption by FAAN has further inconvenienced the travel plans of thousands of
passengers who were already affected due to the acute scarcity of aviation fuel
(Jet A1) in the recent weeks.
Arik Air sincerely apologise
to its esteemed passengers for any inconvenience experienced due to this
unwarranted disruption and unlawful action by FAAN.
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