Aviation: Flight operations return as NiMet’s workers suspend strike

Flight operations are back to normalcy as the workers of the Nigeria Meteorological Agency, NiMet, have suspended their strike, which disrupted the aviation sector.

The strike suspension comes after the intervention of Aviation and Aerospace Development Minister, Festus Keyamo, SAN.

The president of the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals, ANAP, Alale Adebayo, disclosed this in a statement after a closed-door meeting with the minister, NiMet executive members, and other striking unions on Thursday.

Adebayo said, “He (the minister) has attended to all of our demands.”

Speaking after the meeting, Keyamo said he is going to write to the president immediately for the payment of the shortfalls.

“We looked at the issues and discovered that there is not much disagreement. They raised the issue of salaries relatively. It has been agreed that I write the president for the release of the payment of the shortfalls,” he said.

Recall that on Thursday the minister and other top officials of NiMet and heads of other aviation agencies were in a closed-door meeting with workers’ unions.

Recall that an industrial action was embarked upon by NiMet workers on Wednesday to demand improved welfare, promotion, and better welfare and has stalled the operations of flights in Nigerian airports.

Consequently, NiMet’s workers strike resulted in the shutdown of Air Peace flight operations on Wednesday and incessant flight delays and cancelations in Nigerian airports.

Reacting, Group Captain John Ojikutu, a retired Air Force officer and aviation expert, said the strike was imminent and had put the sector at risk and loss.

According to him, the remuneration of NiMet workers should be shouldered by the Ministry of Aviation and other agencies enjoying their services in the sector.

“Where is the source(s) of their budget? It should not be aviation alone because the Nimet services are not only for aviation but also for maritime, environment, and agriculture.

It is very abnormal if the only source of Nimet’s budget is from aviation, the same for the Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau, NISB,” he told SOCIETY WATCH in a telephone interview on Thursday.