VK/NEA's MD will rather pay bills than Salaries

[NDB17]

A little bird told me today that "Ob/sama" sent out an email today that other bills are of more priority than paying salaries.
Apparently, buying people full fare tickets to go home on vacation takes precedence over salaries.
Guys are owed august, september flight pay plus september salries. But the usual excuse is that BA (the almighty BA) is laying off. Why dont we lay people off too. Better yet shut down the airline.
Good luck to the guys

[The Vicar of Bray]

Heard that also, No salary for September and in 5 more days October will be due, so in effect 2 months late. Interestingly they cannot pay salaries but they can rebrand and paint their aircraft in the new colours. They can give every manager a fancy SUV, they can meet with top level gov't officials and pretend that all is well in the camp, they can pay for fuel, everything but the employee salaries.

[5N Pilot]

NEA- 'Nigerian Endangered Airline'...that's by the way.
NDB17,I stumbled upon the email,and I am very sure you read it too.No good manager will ever send that kind of email.That was a ruthlessly polite way of telling staffers that you will be laid off.
Ob/sama of whatever we call him has failed and I very much doubt the company will survive the next few months.
What kind of a manager will commit 700000usd to repaint aircrafts when salaries have not been paid for two months.
All the media hype the CEO is making is a waste of time.At this period of recession and even at post recession there is no magic that can be done to a company that is indebted to the tune of 220mUSD(excluding unpaid salaries!!).I will rather promote a new entity than invest in a drain!
The next few weeks will be quite interesting as events unfold.

[dejidip]

This is not good news,All that glitters is surely not gold,My heart goes out to my guys,Pilots should not fly in arrears of salary,this is a safety issue that is serious and should be addressed Human factors dictates this and we all know,I just hope this is a rumour;Not Good:ouch::confused::sad::eek:

[JTrain]

This is one of those unfortunate Africa dilemmas that expat pilots frequently face.

Although I imagine the pilots who haven't been paid are quite pissed off about that, if you quit, that essentially guarantees you won't be paid. So you stick around, hoping to be paid, or at least that some of what they owe you will come through, but its tough as the money hasn't been there the last two months and there are no guarantees it ever will be. You have to hope the company will do the right thing but based on the fact they'd rather pay bills than salaries, its hard to be optimistic.

Good luck to all VK drivers in this situation - hope it works out.

[eagleflier]

This is one of those unfortunate Africa dilemmas that expat pilots frequently face


You knew the 'dangers' of working in Africa before you left your perfect country to come fly here so please spare us the Africa bs

[JTrain]

Shut your face.

Worked nearly FOUR years in a WORSE place in Africa, and the paycheck always cleared.

My SYMPATHY goes out out to the Virgin Nigeria folks - I hope it goes well for them.

As for me - I know full well the risks of Africa, as well as the myriad of sleazeball operators that exist who don't pay their folks. I've stayed well clear of them.

JT