By Tabora Bojang
Following a recent sit-down strike by its workers protesting the nonpayment of dues, the Managing Director of Gambia International Airlines GIA Numo Sanneh has told The Standard his company had to cut some of its staff incentives such as loans because it faces revenue constraints caused by a stiff competition from a private ground handling company. Though he declined to name the company his protesting staff told The Standard that he was referring to private ground handling operators called NIRO which allegedly has some senior government officials as shareholders.
According to the protesting GIA staff their working conditions have deteriorated and some of their benefits and incentives such as medical and staff loans have been withdrawn.
They agreed with Management that the decline of GIA is due to the arrival of NIRO, which was awarded a license by the government to compete with GIA as the national ground handler.
According to MD Sanneh the “competition” with the private ground handler is affecting GIA’s revenue.
“As you know GIA has long been out of flight operations leaving us to depend only on ground handling as our major source of revenue but that has been threatened as a result of the introduction of this private competitor into the market. I think it is a concern and because of the financial constraints, we had to reduce some of the staff incentives like loans. These are incentives and not benefits. The institution gives them loans as incentives but we cannot do it now because the revenue has dropped,” MD Sanneh stated.
Asked what steps his management would take to make the institution profitable again, Sanneh pointed out that the board and management have been “working tirelessly trying to revive” GIA’s flight operations. “We are scouting for partners to see if we can get back into flight operations and we have been talking to potential investors,” he said.
NIRO reacts
Meanwhile the private company being referred to, NIRO, in a statement shared with The Standard, dismissed suggestions that they are responsible for the challenges facing GIA.
“We entered the market as a duly authorised Gambian company and have competed for business by investing in equipment, people, training and service delivery. Airlines are commercial customers and have the right to choose their service providers based on safety, quality, reliability, operational performance and price. Competition should encourage every operator to improve rather than restrict customer choice. NIRO therefore rejects the suggestion that offering competitive prices constitutes unfair competition. Our prices are based on our operating costs, investments and commercial agreements with our airline customers,” the company said.
It continued: “We have no interest in seeing GIA workers lose their livelihoods. They are our fellow Gambians. However, the legitimate concerns of employees should not be used to make NIRO the scapegoat for the commercial or operational challenges of another company”.
Allegations of involvement of senior government officials as shareholders
NIRO also pushed against allegations that government officials are holding interests in the company describing it as “serious claims” that cannot be substantiated.