The Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) has appointed the former Director of Flight Operations of Arik Air, Captain Abdullahi Mahmood, as the Chief Executive Officer of Aero Contractors following the stepping down of Captain Ado Sanusi  on December 31, 2020.

Mahmood joined Arik Air in 2007 as a flight officer and rose to become a captain before he became Director of Flight Operations. As a flight officer, he operated the Bombardier CRJ-900 and later started flying the Boeing B737-NG and Airbus A330. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has been notified of his new appointment.

However, industry insiders believe that Captain Sanusi who stepped down from Aero Contractors has been penciled down by AMCON to take over Nigerian Eagle, the new airline which would  possibly become a national carrier, while Captain Roy Ilegbodu would continue as Arik Air’s CEO. 

Sanusi was instrumental to the  turning around of the over 50-year  -old Aero Contractors into a capable Maintenance Repair Organisation (MRO) rolling out some of its previously unserviceable aircraft  in 2018 and 2019.Under Sanusi’s leadership, the airline sought for and gained third party maintenance approval and is already making in-roads into West and Central Africa in Ghana and Congo precisely. Also set the process to upgrade the airline’s MRO, as well as sign various other agreements to help the airline maintain a semblance breaking even.

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Sanusi was Deputy Managing Director of Arik Air, and in 2009, one time Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) led the organisation in 2017 to seek for and acquire approval to handle C-Checks on Boeing 737 series along with its maintenance of the Bombardier Turboprop airliner series, boosting its chances of turning the curb of a disappointing past couple of years. In order to get an Air Operating Certificate (AOC) from the NCAA, Daily Sun gathered that two aircraft would be brought in for  Nigerian Eagle and four more would be added when it starts domestic operations. According to safeflightips.com, Nigerian Eagle was incorporated on July 11,2019 with share capital of 1,000,000,000 units and shareholders are AMCON, 499,999,999 units, while Omokhide Alaba has one unit. 

AMCON took over the management of Arik Air in February 2017 when the airline had 26 aircraft, though only few are in use while the rest are in storage. Though AMCON initially denied the report, industry insiders insist that the new airline would take over an unspecified number of Arik’s fleet and leave some for it to continue operations. Before it was taken over by AMCON, Arik bought Boeing 737-700, Boeing 737-80, Bombardier Q400 and Bombardier CRJ as new aircraft and still has pending orders from the plane manufacturers for seven Boeing 787-9 and 12 Boeing 737 max. 

The head of corporate communications of AMCON, Jude Nwuzor,  confirmed that Captain Sanusi has been deployed and Captain Mahmood has been appointed to head Aero Contractors. He also said the agency has other aircraft that would be deployed for the new aircraft from other airlines and not necessarily from Arik Air.