FIRSTNATION AIRLINE DENIES PLANNING TO FOLD UP

Capt. Chimara Imediegwu, who also the Airline’s Director of Flight Operations, said it was not true that the airline was on the edge of folding up, that it voluntarily grounded the aircraft at enormous cost to await the arrival of the manufacturer’s team.

“The airline planned this maintenance action well ahead. The team of engineers will arrive in Nigeria by Sept. 8 to begin the repairs, while flight services are expected to resume thereafter. The challenges of sourcing forex with constantly changing CBN policies and Rate of Exchange (ROE) leave us sometimes in situations where aircraft parts cannot be obtained when ordered."

“This is due to banks inability to transfer funds based on bids and maintenance schedules programmed with external Maintenance and Repair Organisations (MRO) providers, suffer the repeated failures of the bidding system,’’ the director said.