Niro Company is a business entity secretly allegedly owned by the Gambia Vice President, some Cabinet colleagues, and some Government technology from the education sectors. Niro Company has been used to attempt to replace the GIA, the state-owned enterprise with expertise in the Aviation service industry and fourth-year ground handling services, which is better equipped to handle the aviation service needs at the BIA.
Niro continues to manifest its incompetence, indicating that GIA is a better company for ground-handling services. Their incompetence is evident in their failure to deliver satisfactory services to the two significant contracts ( ASKY AND BRUSSELS AIRLINES) they took away from GIA under dubious circumstances, with the support of undue influence from a Government agency.
NIRO’s most recent inefficiency was its inability to aid the ASKY flight in starting and departing from Banjul a few months ago, on 15th April, due to the lack of ground support equipment called Air Starter. NIRO, which does not have the required Ground Support Equipment to handle even two flights simultaneously, had to bank on its rival GIA to rescue them as they watched the ASKY flight with connecting passengers delayed.
Yesterday, Sunday, July 07, a Brussels Airlines aircraft had technical issues at the Banjul International Airport. The aircraft engineer requested a step ladder to reach the aircraft’s rear, but Niro’s step ladder could not reach the aircraft’s top. They offloaded all their one hundred and fifty passengers and cancelled and booked a hotel for all 150 passengers.
As we draft this article, at 20:00 on 08/07, Brussels Airline landed another aircraft (Brussel Airline Airbus A330_200 registration 00-SFH) to rescue the passengers, adding to their operational cost.
Today, Monday, July 08, the Brussels Aircraft is still stranded at the BIA Tarmac. Aziz Mendy, the Brussels Airlines country representative, pressured NIRO COMPANY, their ground handling agent, and tried everything possible to get the engineers to access the aircraft’s top, but he could not find a solution. Ultimately, he hid from people because it was shameful.
Aziz was the individual who had influenced Brussels Airlines to abandon their contract with GIA, the company with the competency, experience, and excellent track record in Favour of the NIRO company. They wanted to approach GIA to borrow their step ladder but didn’t know how to approach them; hence, Aziz fabricated that the NIRO company was better equipped to service their ground handling needs.
The continuing poor performance of the Niro Company is Further evidence of the Barrow administration’s incompetency and corruption. What else influences the Barrow administration’s facilitation of an entity like Niro into a sensitive and vital Aviation industry? Even the Gambia Civil Aviation Authority fails its oversight mandate in Issuing an operation licence to Niro Company.
If the airport Security Charges kill off operations at BIA, Niro’s incompetency will be the Final Nail in the coffin.
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