Aero Contractors Company of Nigeria resumed scheduled commercial passenger flights on 16 July 2018, ending roughly two years of suspended service that began in May 2016 when the airline grounded its fleet over unpaid aircraft leases, fuel debts and a broader liquidity crisis tied to the naira devaluation of that period.
A Scaled-Back Comeback
The airline restarted with a single daily Lagos-Abuja-Port Harcourt rotation using two Boeing 737-400s pulled out of long-term storage and recertified by NCAA engineers, a fraction of the roughly ten-aircraft fleet it operated before the shutdown. Aero's managing director Capt. Ado Sanusi said the carrier planned to add frequencies and destinations “in a phased and financially disciplined manner” rather than repeat the rapid expansion that preceded its 2016 collapse.
Ownership Question Still Unresolved
Aero remains under the receivership of AMCON, which took control of the airline's debt in 2010 and has spent years searching for a core investor willing to recapitalise the carrier. Aviation unions welcomed the restart as a jobs lifeline for hundreds of furloughed staff but cautioned that without a resolved ownership structure and fresh capital, the airline risked repeating the funding gaps that grounded it in the first place.