Two airlines, United Nigeria and Air Peace, may have lost over N2bn following Tuesday’s disruption of flight operations by a coalition of aviation workers’ unions, with nearly 100 flights cancelled or disrupted and thousands of passengers left stranded at airports.
The unions, which are the National Union of Air Transport Employees, Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, and National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, backed by the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress, began picketing the airline in the early hours of Tuesday.
United Nigeria Airlines
The industrial action, which was targeted principally at Air Peace over claims by the unions that the airline was the largest shareholder of the TSC debt, grounded the airline’s operations at the Lagos and Abuja airports, throwing travel plans into disarray and leaving passengers scrambling for alternatives.
Recall that the unions had earlier issued three stages of warning, threatening to picket airlines that had refused to pay the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority the five per cent Ticket Sales Charge.
