Why airlines abandon their aircraft abroad
The biggest problem airlines are contending with in terms of maintenance is the high cost of C-Check, which has compelled some carriers to abandon their airplanes in countries of repairs.
The Chief Executive Officer of Aero Contractors, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, made this disclosure at the weekend in Lagos. Aircraft maintenance checks are periodic inspections that have to be done on all commercial/ civil aircraft after a certain amount of time or usage.
Airlines periodically carry out checks on their airplanes. The checks are A to D checks. The A and B checks are lighter checks, while C and D are heavier checks.
Akinkuotu stated that on the domestic front, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in its wisdom had imposed a calendar limit for a C-check at every 18 months and depending on the scope of work to be performed.
The Aero Contractors’boss, who stated this while delivering a paper at the quarterly meeting of aviation think-tank, Aviation Round Table (ART), said an average C-check costs $1 million, adding that by today’s exchange rate of N310/$1, this can be conservatively N310 million per aircraft every 18 months.
“Sixty to 70 per cent is labour costs, while the balance is the cost of parts and engineering services associated with the C-checks,” he said.
He noted that presently, Nigerian airlines collectively operated a fleet of about 65 airplanes, adding that with an estimated N310million for C-check, that is about N20.15billion of capital flight every 18 months (N13.43billion per annum).
Also, considering other incidental costs of about N21.7billion ($70, 000) associated with each C-check done abroad, Akinkuotu said the cumulative for the fleet operated collectively was about N1.41billion every 18 months.
In his presentation, entitled, “Justification for a Nigerian Indigenous MRO”, he said the C-Checks became more problematic for the nation’s airline operators because most airlines were, “unable to pay for the checks and eventually abandon the aircraft at the foreign MROs who usually refuse to release the aircraft to the airlines until all invoices are settled.”
He explained that in the agreement, the aircraft maintenance facility owners may charge a very attractive standard C-Check fee of $500, 000, there are usually findings which are beyond the quoted cap that must be rectified when the aircraft gets to the facility and the actual work begins and panels are opened.
He noted that this is where the huge difference comes in that dramatically raises the final C-Check cost.
Justifying the need for an indigenous MRO, the aircraft pilot said it would bring significant savings and not only increase their survivability but also ensure that such capital can be applied to purchasing more airplanes to strengthen the carriers’ operations and schedule reliability, create more jobs for pilots, engineers and other category of airline staff.
There are many Nigerian airlines, which aircraft were flown to places like Ethiopia, Morocco, Egypt and other places for maintenance but which never returned.
After checks, the operators at times find out that the costs are almost the value of buying such classics; they decide to abandon the airplanes there.
It was predicted that by the end of this year, Nigerian airlines are expected to spend over N560 billion for the maintenance cost of over 350 aircraft that are expected to go for both C and D checks.
In 2013, Nigerian airlines spent over $1.22 billion (N200 billion) when the exchange rate was at N200 to $1 on overseas checks due to lack of any major maintenance facility, according to statistics given by the former Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Olusegun Demuren.
Nigeria has about 350 aircraft in operations (scheduled, charter and privately owned) that are ferried overseas for major repairs, resulting in ridiculous capital flights. South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Ethiopia have workable Maintenance Repairs Overhaul (MRO) facilities, as well as airports that operate as hubs.
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