The National Union of Air Transport Employees(NUATE) has disagreed with the Turkish Airline.s claim that the  carrier  lost $600,000, in Nigeria due to dubious behavior of some of  its staff in the country saying it is mere phantom.

“ It is an awful attempt by the Airline to stand truth on its head. We wish to let the public and stakeholders know that the accusations are blatant and poorly formulated lies. “

Explaining, through a press statement,NUATE said what happened is that sometime in April, 2023, Turkish Airlines’ headquarters issued a sales restriction circular which allowed sales of only two premium classes of tickets as a response to foreign airlines’ difficulty in repatriating their proceeds to home countries due to foreign exchange constraints in Nigeria.

It indicated that,  in a contradicting manner the Airline had an advertised fare on the website which was much lower than the permitted fares.

Therefore, intending passengers who accessed such fare, but could not pay online were directed by the global call center to approach the Nigerian offices.

As the workers could not attend to the customers due to the sales restriction, the passengers resorted to creating ugly scenes at the sales offices which became riotous at times.

The workers union stated that as  an image saving measure, the then sales manager asked the sales staff to use the PNR obtained online by the customers to process the tickets if the Airline’s booking system could route the tickets.

“The sales staff simply complied. As a matter of fact, the then sales manager, a Turkish national, sold this tickets too to confirm that this was the local management’s approved approach to resolving the problem created by the website. “

According to the Union,the Airline’s accountants received all due monies from all tickets sold and all sales report were daily submitted to sales manager, signed by him and accounts department and scanned to  headquarters.

“ If monies were not fully received, the account would not have balanced, and sales could not have been concluded. Therefore, no monies belonging to Turkish Airlines is missing. And no staff has taken any monies belonging to Turkish Airlines. Importantly, no staff had any pecuniary benefit from the so called internet sales.”

It is, therefore, said NUATE disingenuous for the General Manager to hold the workers to the charge of failure to comply with the sales restrictions when it is clear that shortcomings on the part of the Airlines ICT (on the website) combined with Local Management’s decisions on managing an otherwise ugly situation were responsible for the sales in question.

Further reacting to the Airline’s publication MUATE noted that it is on record that the General Manager since his assumption of office in May, 2023 has strangely adopted subterfuge and strong-arm tactics to create a stuffy and toxic atmosphere in the Turkish Airlines workplace.

“He has employed threat, intimidation and blackmail to induce fear among the workers in order to force the workers to worship him as a demi-god.”

To register its anger,  NUATE has declared Lokman Balkan,the General Manager of the Airline in Nigeria, persona non grata.

“We shall instruct all aviation workers not to handle him at any Nigerian airport, except at his exit from Nigeria. And if compelled, NUATE shall internationalize his ostracizing from the global aviation family.”

NUATE  assures Mr. Lokman Balkan, GM of Turkish Airlines in Lagos that his mission to exterminate the Union from the Airline will meet with utter failure. If anything, it will be he, not the hard working Nigerian staff, who will leave the Airline.

The Union also  assures the public and aviation stakeholders that its justified position will be pursued in the manner that other aviation businesses will not be negatively impacted,” but only to the extent that we are allowed to prosecute our struggle without unlawful hindrances.”