But , there was one group of professionals (with balls) that never stopped receiving their salary ON TIME !!!!
These professional were the mechanics.
There are a select few at Arik who do get paid on time. The contractor "HiFly", currently operating both A340's, gets paid by the 15th of the month preceding the month of service. They achieved this, of course, after not getting paid on time from Arik. So, HiFly threatened to cancel their service, which would have immediately stopped JFK service indefinitely.
Apparently, this threat was perceived as real, and the blow to the ego of curtailed service to New York would be big. By the way, this route loses HUGE amounts of money for Arik.This contract was scheduled to expire March 2011, but rumour is that it has been extended for another year (and rightfully so).
In contrast, contractor Denim air, which operated their own planes, was stiffed for LOADS of money. So was the government of Niger, for ATC fees and the like. Probably every hotel and fuel supplier, too.
For last month, our engineers (many, many of them from Spain) have still not been paid.
For the most part, the pilots have now been paid for last month. Predictably, pilots are still resigning at an alarming rate.