Arik Air, in partnership with Lufthansa
Technik plans to build a state-of-the-art maintenance, repair and
overhaul facility (MRO), which is expected to elevate air transport in
Nigeria.
Hold on: I thought Akwa-Ibom had built one in Akano-ibom International Airport and with the first phase completed. Smh seriously guys stand as one.
Well one of the major challenges of Nigerian airlines is the maintenance of
their aircraft, which besides the cost of fuel takes a large chunk of
their revenue.
It is highly costly for domestic carriers to maintain their fleet
because of two factors:
- The major checks are done overseas and most of
the time they would have to queue for weeks. Carrying out aircraft
maintenance overseas adds extra cost to what it would be if the aircraft
were maintained in Nigeria.
- The airline loses the services of an
aircraft which queues for weeks in a hangar somewhere in Europe, US or
Africa and also the accruing revenue it will generate.
Everyday a Boeing B737 aircraft operating in Nigeria generates average
of N5 million at full capacity utilisation and sometimes an aircraft
waiting for checks can park for weeks before it would be attended to.
This is because Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facilities are
usually busy all-year round.
The Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr
Harold Demuren, once lamented that Nigerian airlines paid so much for
maintenance and aircraft parts because major maintenance is done
overseas and paid for in dollars, while they generate their money in
naira.
A C-Check maintenance could cost an airline $1 million (about N159
million) but it is believed that it would be cheaper if Nigeria has its
own maintenance facility. It is also believed if there is an MRO in
Nigeria; the country’s airlines will be spending less time at the
facility before checks.
Again, having such a maintenance facility seemed to be a sine qua none
to the development of air transport in any country and unfortunately
there is no major MRO facility in West Africa.
Arik and Lufthansa
During the 5th anniversary of Arik Air, the Chairman of the airline,
Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide, disclosed among other things that Arik would
partner with a renowned aircraft maintenance company in the world,
Lufthansa Technik to build MRO facility in Nigeria.
According to him, the construction would take off immediately the
Federal Government gave a go-ahead for the facility to be built in the
country.
Nature of Facility
Arumemi Ikhide said that the facility would be built to meet
international standards, including that of the International Aviation
Safety Assessment Program (IASA) and the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) of the United States.
The facility when completed will be one of Lufthansa’s major MRO
located outside Hamburg, Germany, the headquarters of Lufthansa Technik
and it is targeted to carry out overall maintenance of new generation
aircraft; that is, modern aircraft.
“And the MRO we are setting up with Lufthansa is global. It is not
strictly for Arik alone. I just want to make that one very clear.
Lufthansa sent us to Malta; the base of Lufthansa is Hamburg, but they
have this type of facility they want to build for us here in Malta; they
have in Budapest; they have in Asia.
“What we made very clear to Lufthansa is that we want an MRO that will
be global. Someone can come from Philippines, some can come from France,
but one problem that we have, which I don’t know, except government
takes a very strong step; we are looking for NGs- next generation
aircraft. We are thinking about the A330s; we are not thinking about
B737=200. We won’t maintain all that, but we may maintain B737-400,”
said the Chairman of Arik Air.
He also said that the establishment of the facility was largely
dependent on the support of government and the Nigeria Civil Aviation
Authority (NCAA), adding that Lufthansa gave conditions that must be met
by the Federal Government before the facility would be established.
“Lufthansa set some conditions, which they feel the government must
abide by. We have to work with NCAA and they have to keep it to IASA
standards and FAA standards. So it is going to benefit the whole
country. Arik itself will be a customer of that MRO so there is going to
be a difference between Arik airline and the MRO.”
On the timeline for the project, Arumemi Ikhide projected that it could
be established from next year if all the conditions given by Lufthansa
were met and the European company was also hopeful that the building of
the facility could start as quickly as possible. The MRO
is a very important thing to our heart.”
Government’s Support
The Director of Airworthiness and Standards, NCAA, Emmanuel Usifo, said
the agency would give full support to the project and ensure that there
would be no hitches of the side of the regulatory body in actualising
the project.
“We will work with them all the way, and that’s what we are going to do
and I can tell you that the interest is in it. We are glad that
Lufthansa is here; we know Lufthansa’s high standards and that is known
worldwide. And we are happy that they are going to partner with Nigeria;
partner with Arik. We are really, really happy about it so we will work
with you all the way.”
The Special Adviser (Media) to the Minister of Aviation, Joe Obi, told
THISDAY that although the ministry would not comment on the condition,
which Lufthansa had given before it would establish the facility in
partnership with Arik, but that the Federal Government was fully in
support of the establishment of such facility by the private sector.
“I don’t think that government will stand in the way, if Arik wants to
build such a facility. Government will support and encourage it. Until
we know what the conditions given by Lufthansa is, we cannot comment on
that, but government will fully support the project,” Obi said.
NCAA Director-General, Demuren once noted that that it would be a
long-term programme for the establishment of MRO and training of
engineers that would man it but the earlier Nigeria started the better.
He also spoke about government’s support for such projects and recalled
how American government supports establishment of MRO facilities.
“In America it is different. If you want to build maintenance facility
you don’t pay for the land. In fact the US government will put money
into it. This is because it is going to provide jobs. It is going to
improve safety and another important thing, you cannot take it out of
the country. The US government built a lot of maintenance facilities so
that they can promote safety and provide job and create wealth.”
Training
The Chief Commercial Officer of Lufthansa, Alfred Nessel, told THISDAY
that his company was poised to establish the facility in Nigeria, adding
that the country needed MRO facility to enhance and develop the
aviation sector.
He also said that Lufthansa would embark on training Nigerians who
would man the facility, noting that it would take about three years for
the indigenes to acquire necessary certification to be fully involved in
the maintenance and overhaul services.
The training of Nigerians is crucial for the technical advancement of
the country in aircraft maintenance and Lufthansa has assured that it
would train young Nigerians. Recently, the Managing Director of Bristow
Helicopter, Mr. Akin Oni, argued that maintaining aircraft in a Nigerian
MRO facility would be as costly as maintaining it overseas if it would
be expatriates that would be deployed to the Nigerian facility.
Profitability
The international aviation
personality and expert, Nick Fadugba, said it was high time an MRO
facility was built in the country and pointed out the gains.
“First, let me say that West Africa is the only region in the continent
without a world-class maintenance facility. North Africa has it; East
Africa has it; Southern Africa has it, but West Africa and in particular
Nigeria, we lack a vibrant MRO facility”.
Fadugba said that establishing a modern MRO facility is cost intensive and spoke on how to make such facility profitable.
“What happens is that before you build MRO facility, you already get
airlines committed to bringing their aircraft. So companies that build
MRO facilities normally enter into commercial agreement with airlines
before they start building the facility. That is, if I am going to
invest X amount of dollars into building this facility, I need to be
guaranteed by these airlines that the fleet they have will have to come
through my MRO facility.
You cannot just build MRO facility and then wait for customers to show
up. It doesn’t work like that in this day and age. So for a successful
MRO facility, it is a partnership between the numerous service providers
and, not only one airline but several airlines.”
The MRO facility when completed would elevate the image of Nigeria and
also improve its reckoning in the aviation world; it would also improve
the safety of aircraft that operate in the country
