NIGERIA MASTERWEB DAILY NEWS

*Alleged Liquidation: Nigeria Federal Court Clears IRS Airline

-*Acquires 3 More Aircraft

-*Expands Operations to West Coast Shortly

By Lateef Lawal

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has ruled in favour of IRS Airlines in a case of alleged voluntary liquidation brought against it by Union Bank early in the year.

The airline, had through its counsel filed a counter motion against the suit claiming that the airline was not going into liquidation as claimed by the bank and that the issue on ground was mere misunderstanding between the bank and its customer which could be settled amicably. IRS also filed all necessary documents to support its grounds of objection.

Giving a ruling recently, Justice A. Abang noted that the issue at stake, he strongly believed could be settled amicably among the parties without recourse to legal battle.

The Chairman of IRS Airline, Alhaji Isyaku Rabiu could not be reached on his reaction to the ruling as he was said to be out of the country to shop for more aircraft to beef-up the fleet of the airline in preparation for the airline’s route network expansion on the domestic and West Coast. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: IRS Airline plane (Right) and copter (Left).

The Assistant Secretary General of the Airline Operators of Nigeria(AON), Alhaji Mohammed Tukur said he was delighted on the outcome of the court decision, as it would correct the wrong signal given to the public at-large and foreign business partners of IRS Airlines.

He advised the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA) to as a matter of urgency set up an aviation dispute resolution unit to settle business dispute between airlines and their partners, especially the banks who finance aircraft acquisitions for Nigerian carriers so as not cripple air transportation business in the country through unnecessary litigations.

As a member of AON, Alhaji Tukur said the entire members of the airline’s body congratulated the Chairman of IRS on the manner of the outcome of the case and the manner in which both parties resolved the matter amicably. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: An Airborne Plane

Meanwhile, competent sources close to the airline indicated that the airline is to increase the number of aircraft in its fleet from the present four to eight before the end of the last quarter of the year. It presently operates 4 Fokker100 and 1 Fokker 28.

Presently, the airline has increased its frequencies on the Lagos-Abuja route to 4 daily, same applies to Lagos-Kaduna, Lagos-Kano.

It is also expanding to its operations to Kaduna-Enugu, Kaduna-Yola-Maiduguri, Lagos-Warri, Lagos-Port Harcourt, while she plans to add Enugu-Abuja at a later time. In total, IRS currently operates 36 frequencies daily.

As part of plans to shore up its operations, the management of IRS has sent 21 pilots and over 20 aircraft engineers on retraining at overseas facilities

Lateef Lawal (NigerianAviationNews)

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*Tags: Nigerians, Irs, Liquidation, Airlines, Abuja, Lagos, Africa, Masterweb