The airline had last week announced resumption of scheduled flight operations that were suspended on August 17 due to technical fault and maintenance requirements that could not be carried out as planned, The Guardian reports.
It was however learnt that the recent shift in the resumption date was not unconnected with delays encountered in fixing one of its aircrafts.
Reliable sources privy to the development revealed that the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, only released the equipment needed to fix the airplanes a few days ago.
“The airline had anticipated that all customs formalities would have been done last week Friday before the Sallah holidays. It is hoped that the team of engineers would finish work on the engines before September 16 as the airline plans to resume operations immediately after the engines are fixed,’’ a source said
FirstNation Airway’s Director of Flight Operations, Capt. Chimara Imediegwu, recently told newsmen that a team of engineers was coming to Nigeria to service the planes.
Imediegwu explained that the challenges of sourcing foreign exchange with constantly changing Central Bank of Nigeria’, CBN, policies and Rate of Exchange (ROE) left the airline in a situation where aircraft parts could not be obtained when ordered.
