These guys really do "give a dog a bad name" by making deals and not sticking to them, much like many other Nigerians in aviation. Have a look in "Rotorheads" here for so-called Caverscam and their antics, Stillwater as was, Barnax, and so on and on. You go to Nigeria, then you play by local rules and get shafted the same way locals do. Maybe you get lucky and get paid, maybe not but a contract with a local operator in the context of Nigeria is largely meaningless. So long as you understand that you should be okay. If you think it's like the USA or Europe, where you haul someone up before an arbritration board, think again!
You really can end up in jail, as the Barnax ex-pats found out to their considerable surprise, even after I had dropped some heavy hints. I met these Barnax guys, all ex-Eastern Airlines, working like beavers on what they took for a serious start-up regional airline, up there on the first floor of a low-rise building in Port Harcourt, its forecourt all crammed with generators and pumps and such.
After observing the level of work they were putting in there I asked them what the deal would be if they didn't get paid on time, when they very stoutly told me that they would down tools forthwith, one even saying, "What are they going to do, lock us up?"
"Err, guys, that is an option here in Nigeria, you know..." Then they just looked at me. That is to say from their US point of view, Mr "Barnax" had signed with ILFC (I think it was) for 2 (two) Boeing 737-200 aircraft, promising to pay some considerable sum of money every month to this well-known leasing firm and had also signed contracts with these professional airmen for their services so that as far as they were concerned this Nigerian would find himself in a whole lot of trouble if he didn't hold up his end of the deal.
Well, there was a whole lot of trouble but mainly for the leasing company, when it took forever to get their damned airplanes back. Barnax got an injunction from some tame local judge that meant the planes were sat there rotting on the ramp for years and the pilots did, indeed, down tools but were then surprised to be put in jail. Only for a little while, after which they went back to the States but I doubt they ever saw any of that money that was promised them.
Did "Barnax" get into any serious trouble over that? Will Arik over what is happening now? Does a chicken have lips?
Last edited by chuks; 8th Jul 2010 at 11:54.