Nigeria's Cally Air to resume ops - report

Nigeria's Cross River state government says its dormant virtual carrier Cally Air (Calabar) will resume operations at Calabar airport to cater for an expected surge in passenger demand over the upcoming Calabar Festival period. According to the News Nigeria outlet, Cross River's commissioner for aviation, Eno Utum Inah, said flights would restart on November 30.

The airline, a joint venture between the state government and Aero Contractors (N2, Lagos) (also the operator), lost the municipality's support earlier this year amid a dispute regarding the attachment of a B737-300 over NGN900 million naira (USD1.2 million) in outstanding service fees.

In the interim, Aero Contractors has continued to use aircraft bearing Cally Air's livery on its own services. Aero Contractors is a general aviation operator with fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and MRO businesses. Earlier this month, a Cally Air liveried B737-300 skidded off the runway after landing at Abuja. That particular aircraft, 5N-BYQ (msn 30334), is one of two -300s operated by Aero on Cally Air services.
ch-aviation has contacted Aero Contractors for comment.
The commissioner also said that one of the reasons for resuming Cally Air flights was to fill a sudden capacity vacuum caused by the reported suspension of flights by Ibom Air (QI, Uyo). However, Ibom has denied it has suspended its operations, describing speculation to the contrary as an "underhanded business strategy.”

CH Aviation 

Tussle over aircraft of Nigeria's Cally Air

A political tussle exists in Nigeria over a B737-300 of dormant Cally Air (Calabar), the Cross River state government-owned virtual carrier suspended by its operator Aero Contractors (N2, Lagos) in July 2022, over NGN900 million naira (USD1.9 million) in outstanding service fees.

According to This Day newspaper, in 2021, the Cross River state government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AeroContractors as the operator and IRS Airlines (Abuja) as the asset manager of two aircraft: B737-300 5N-BYQ (msn 30334) and Dash 8-200 5N-GRS (msn 547). Cally Air was created to service Calabar from Lagos, Kano, and Abuja.

Recently, outgoing Cross River state governor Ben Ayade planned to cede 5N-BYQ to IRS Airlines in a somewhat blurred agreement opposed by his successor Bassey Ottu and Aero Contractors, reports This Day. Ayade, earlier this year, had listed some of the state's assets - including Cally Air - to be ceded to private firms.

About two weeks ago, Cross River state government representatives led by Jake Ottu Enyia and Udiba Effiong Udiba, the respective commissioners of aviation and asset management and recovery, had a meeting with Aero Contractors' management about the possible return of the aircraft, but Aero Contractors insisted on the repayment of the outstanding NGN 900 million for operations and maintenance services over the last two years.

According to ch-aviation fleets advanced data, both aircraft are now part of the Aero Contractor fleet and are stored at Lagos. 5N-BYQ is on an operating lease from Magnetic Leasing. It was formerly operated by airBaltic (BT, Riga) as YL-BBX. The Cross River state government owns 5N-GRS although it is currently derelict.

CH Aviation

 

Cally Air is a proposed Nigerian joint venture to be based at Calabar Airport. (Boeing 737-36Q(WL) - 5N-BQY)

 Radim Koblížka


Ostrava Mosnov (OSR / LKMT)
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