Nigeria to save N3trn on planned Air Force maintenance hangar

In a bid to bridge the gap and ensure that the huge amount spent on aircraft maintenance offshore is curtailed, the Nigerian Air Force said that it is planning to float a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul facility (MRO), which would save the nation $15 billion (N3 trillion) yearly.

Chief of Air Staff (COAS, Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar, disclosed this at the weekend on the sideline of a summit held by the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE). The absence of aircraft maintenance facilities in Nigeria may have cost the country over $150 billion in the last 10 years. A comprehensive (C) Check on B737 classic and maintenance in Europe, the United States or in Cairo, Egypt, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, costs $1 million every 18 months. For Next Gen aircraft such as the B737-700/800, the airlines pay $2 million for maintenance. Abubakar was represented at the occasion by the Commander, 401 Aircraft Maintenance Depot, Ikeja, Air Commodore Emmanuel Eze. Abubakar said that on completion of the maintenance hangar, the air force would commercialise it and make it available to Nigerian carriers, both commercial and military.

This would enable them to carry out maintenance of their aircraft in the country. He told the gathering that the essence of the hangar was to ensure reduction in the cost of money spent on maintaining aircraft by airline owners and operators in the country. Abubakar also disclosed that the air force had set up international helicopter training school that had graduated two sets of students, adding that the school was not restricted to NAF personnel, but the public as well. He added that soon, NAF would set up the fixed wing training school in the country. Besides, he said that work was on-going on the establishment of a directorate of regulations and airworthiness in the air force, which he believed would further ensure provision of competent professionals for  the country’s aviation industry. He said: “We are assiduously working to see that the capacity of NAF personnel is well developed. We are working with NCAA to ensure that we develop the civil aviation sector in Nigeria.”

Speaking in the same vein, Managing Director of Finum Aviation, Sheri Kyari, said: “The next facility that is of dire need today is a maintenance centre capable of handling all the commercial airliners in the country that require heavy maintenance.” The absence of this asset, he said, is encouraging capital flight. Some aircraft maintenance engineers claimed that lack of MRO facilities had cost the operators and the government over $150billion since the essence of a hangar project was highlighted over two decades ago.

The fact that such maintenance is done in foreign exchange makes things more difficult for the airlines. What had been the situation is the enrichment of such countries such as Ethiopia, Morocco and South Africa, where airlines in the country take their aircraft for comprehensive checks. Nigerian airlines are said to be bleeding. Maintenance of their planes in the country would cost them less than half of the humongous amount of ferrying aircraft abroad for repairs in Europe, United States, Asia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa regarded as countries in Africa with world class aircraft maintenance facilities.