Arik suspends international flights to London, Jo’burg, apologizes to passengers

 THE management of Arik Air has this evening announced the suspension of its international flights to London and Johannesburg so as to enable it find lasting solutions to its current financial quagmire.

The Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) took over the airline after uncovering huge debts in excess of N300billion and stated that it planned to realign the operations of the airline pending when it could rake in N10billion to normalize the airline’s operations.

In a statement to Nigerianflightdeck, the Arik Air management said it would recommence the operations when things become normal and appealed to its passengers to bear with its decisions.

The statement read,” This is to bring to the notice of our travelling public our intention to suspend our international flight operations to enable us find permanent solution facing our passengers as it will enable us to carry out a thorough assessment of the situation.”

‘The strategic business decision is meant to realign our operations and refocus on satisfying our domestic and West Africa and other international passengers. It will also present Arik with excellent opportunity to engage and discuss with creditors who have become restive since the intervention and have also understandably exhausted their patience due to non-payment of accumulated debt and non-performance on services and contracts.”

“Consequent upon this, arrangements are being made to refund all international passengers of the airline that are affected by this decision.”

“To our international creditors, Arik is most grateful for your patience and understanding. We reassure them that all pending issues with the airline will be duly addressed as a matter of priority as we plan to engage them in this regard.”

“The international route is very critical for the strategic turn around, growth strategy and stability of the airline. Therefore we intend to revisit the routes immediately we address all the problems inherited, which is affecting and creating more dissatisfied passenger base. We appeal to all passengers to kindly bear with us as the decision is to ensure that the airline adheres strictly to international aviation best practices. “

 Recall that before the AMCON take over of Arik Air, the airline had already suspended its operations indefinitely to John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) International Airport, New York citing reasons based on logistics.