Aero Contractors Company of Nigeria Limited, known as Aero Contractors or simply Aero, is a state-controlled Nigerian aviation company based at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. It operates
helicopter services and fixed wing domestic and international scheduled passenger services, air charter and third party aircraft operations, largely in support of Nigeria's extensive oil and gas industry.
History
Aero Contractors was formed in 1959 and officially registered in Nigeria in 1960. At that time, it was a wholly owned by Schreiner Airways B.V. of the Netherlands.
It became a company with initially 40% Nigerian holding in 1973 and subsequently 60% in 1976, anticipating the requirements of the Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decree of 1977, also known as the indigenization decree. In January 2004, Schreiner Airways was bought by CHC Helicopter (CHC), which acquired a 40% holding in Aero, while the 60% majority share remained within the Ibru family.
The company was founded in 1979 by Jim Rhyne, a former pilot with Air America. The company has 26 planes and 79 employees and operates from the tiny Johnston County Airport.
On May 31, 2005, the New York Times reported that the company was heavily involved in extraordinary rendition, the transport of terrorism suspects to countries where they can be interrogated to extract information. An Aero Contractors plane was used in the transport of Khalid El-Masri, a German citizen who was pulled from a bus on the Serbia-Macedonia border and held for three weeks. He was drugged and beaten before being flown to Afghanistan on a Boeing Business Jet operated by Aero Contractors. El-Masri was released after five months.
Aero Corporations allegedly operates under several different shell companies, including Stevens Express Leasing, Inc., Premier Executive Transport Services, Aviation Specialties, Inc., and Devon Holding and Leasing, Inc.
Modern-day Nigeria has been the site of numerous kingdoms and tribal states over the millennia. The modern state originated from British colonial rule beginning in the 19th century, and the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914. The British set up administrative and legal structures whilst practising indirect rule through traditional chiefdoms. Nigeria became a formally independent federation in 1960, and plunged into a civil war from 1967 to 1970. It has since alternated between democratically-elected civilian governments and military dictatorships, until it achieved a stable democracy in 1999, with its 2011 presidential elections being viewed as the first to be conducted reasonably freely and fairly.
Nigeria is an album by American jazz guitarist Grant Green featuring performances recorded in 1962 but not released on the Blue Note label until 1980. The tracks were also released in 1997 as part of The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark.
Reception
The Allmusic review by Michael Erlewine awarded the album 4½ stars and stated "Just classic Green".
Currently there are some maintenance facilities in Nigeria, which include AeroContractorsAMO, 7 Star maintenance hangar and others for private jets and another for helicopter ... Nigeria, Okonkwo said.
Nigeria’s foremost airline, AeroContractors, has upgraded its clinic with the support of Paelon Memorial Hospital, which brought in medical equipment and expanded the facility.
•AeroContractors reveals airlines lose N15bn revenue annually to delays ... This is coming as the Managing Director of Aero Contractors said that airlines are projected to lose about N15 billion revenues ...
AeroContractors and 7Star but they cannot maintain all categories of aircraft in Nigeria’s airline fleet, which include Bombardier, Embraer, Boeing, Airbus and others.
“To ameliorate our position, SuperBravo has decided to put the lease arrangement with NG Eagle in abeyance and lease its aircraft to AeroContractors of NigeriaCompany Limited pending the issuance of the NG Eagle’s AOC,” it said.
AeroContractors, Nigeria’s oldest aviation company is getting three additional aircraft into service following major repairs by the Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) arm of the airline.
Dana Air is one of the oldest operating airlines in Nigeria today after AeroContractors and Overland Airways... Aero Contractors remains the oldest schedule commercial airline still operating today and ...
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