You're correct, a Nigerian passport and license are a ticket to easy, global travel and aviation success....dude really????

When we started Arik Air, we were told that after two or three years the locals will have to take over … and they did. What a mess. It is sad to see about 20 aircraft grounded... the same "picture" we saw when we started Arik; old Nigera Airways aircraft abandoned.
regards to you all.

The HUGE mystery this past five years or so has always been who was stupid enough to keep bankrolling them as one crisis staggered into yet another.

Oh well....Whoever its was has now finally seen sense. There's a mantra which they seem to have finally learned the words to -

Losing money playing Poker in Las Vegas is fun....
Losing money playing Roulette in Monte Carlo is style....
Losing money playing around with Nigerian companies is inevitable....

Tough times for a couple of good friends and some other very good pilots I know who were stuck in a lose-lose situation at the cess-pit which is the AAAC of wanting to leave but couldn't afford to leave because they knew that they would never, ever, get the money owed to them.

Good Luck guys.

4runner,

I'm guessing your sarcasm comes from living/working in Nigeria, although of course this is an open forum so I may be way off base. Either way, I'm not Nigerian but I lived and worked there for 23 years and only left because I got cancer, otherwise I'd still be there and enjoying the friends I made.

Please don't "diss" an entire country just because you've had a bad experience and/or developed a jaundiced view. One of my neighbours in UK is an A380 Captain; guess what Nationality......

Tragic the guys who've lost their money won't ever get it.

I really like nigeria and Naijas. I'm not dissing the country or the peeps. I was sheltered, fed and given tp and tea from the people that clean the toilets at Lagos Airport after spending the night in the terminal as my "ticket" on Delta was standby and I was bumped. As with all things Naija, one has to keep ones wits and a sense of humor. Aviation or otherwise. Arik Air is a travesty. Big Ogas ruined it, along with just about everything else in the country. We all know Naijas working outside of Nigeria. They typically have at the very minimum, an FAA, Sud Afrikaan or EASA license. A Nigerian license or passport sucks. Operators have had issues with Big Oga Naija pilots who think they're clever.

The cynic in me suspects that they are afraid the aircraft will be impounded if they land outside of Nigeria...

Any truth that the slots they hold for Heathrow are valued at between £60-80 million?

It will be interesting to see where that money ends up.

Arik Air holds slots for Heathrow because BA and Virgin have slots in LOS and ABV.
In a diplomatic agreement Arik was allocated 2 slots at LHR. Rumor says that Arik did not have to pay for the slots.. They just inherited them from Air Nigeria.

On another forum it was stated that when AMCON stepped in they owed N400 billion ! I remember they used to boast in the press of an annual income circa N7bn at their peak.

Doesn't take a brainbox to work out how long paying off that debt would take, assuming they were to make the same revenue every year.

Very sad. History repeating itself unfortunately.

Not only UK CAA,what about FAA in USA? None of these nerds care about pilots flying planes and not being paid from October 2016 (currently March 2017)?

Beyond believe!

Guess you all didn't get the memo that Arik was designed to be a launderette from day 1, enough said...everyone fell for the new aircraft con!

Sounds like someone is bitter from tiring flights on clapped out 'Classics'.

As opposed to "clapped out" NG's?

NaijaNinja

Nothing new there ! Still disappointing, they could have changed the game. :sad:

I was there in 2010.... what a gang of ****ers... 100% of local management and 80% of expatriate management, totally useless people.
History has proven 10 years later, those idiots reached the peak of their career while at Arik.
On the other hand, I met fantastic colleagues and we are still in contact, 10 years later, and they carry on climbing and climbing until the pandemic.

Easy to move up in Arik if the cake is taken to the right person, our culture is dis way, tune will not change