‘Airline is not folding up,’ Management says

The Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Muhtar Usman announced, on Thursday, September 1, 2016, that First Nation was suspending its operations.

“The First Nation Airlines on its part is in the middle of an Engine Replacement Programme for one of its aircrafts. In these circumstances, these airlines clearly cannot continue to undertake schedule operations, hence the inevitable recourse to self-regulatory suspension,” Muhtar said at the time.

The management of the airline has however assured customers that operations will resume on or before September 15, 2016.

This was contained in a statement issued by Head, Corporate Affairs of the airline, Rasheed Yusuff.

The statement reads in part:

“FirstNation is not on the verge of folding up. In reality, since the airline launched services in 2011, the airline has built a strong followership and has been rated consistently as market leader on safety and schedule integrity.

“This reputation was reinforced by FirstNation’s achievement of International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) certification, which is the airline industry global benchmark for world class safety standard in record time of 12 months.”

“We are working to grow the fleet as well. All our aircraft have recently undergone C-Check and returned contrary to the blatant lies contained in the said publication.

“We currently have no aircraft undergoing C-Check anywhere in the world. Our first fleet of A320 were orderly returned to the Lessor and we maintained good relationship with the Lessor.”

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The suspension of First Nation’s operations was announced after another airline, Aero Contractors announced that it was suspending operations indefinitely.

The situation led many to believe that the airlines were shutting down due to the harsh financial climate being experienced by businesses in the country.