9th June, 2011
Air Nigeria has reacted to the financial crisis rocking the airline by ordering that salaries of staff be slashed by 30 percent across board, sources told P.M.NEWS today.
The airline owned by business mogul, Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim, also directed that at least 30 percent of the workforce be sacked, the source said.
Our source said that while many good hands have left Air Nigeria, other workers are apprehensive about an imminent sack.
Yesterday, officials of the Lagos Inland Revenue Service, LIRS, stormed the airline’s corporate office in Lagos and sealed it off over alleged N500 million tax evasion.
The offence is punishable by law.
On 25 May, Air Nigeria did not fly for at least eight hours when it did not have money to pay oil marketers for aviation fuel needed for aircraft.
The airline has experienced long flight delays and cancellations in recent weeks.
Ibrahim acquired Virgin Nigeria last year and changed its name to Air Nigeria to reflect, he said then, the culture and values of Nigeria.
By Simon Ateba