Airlines spend $117 million on aircraft offshore maintenance yearly

*42 aircraft in service

A new statistics of what Nigerian carriers spend to carry out comprehensive maintenance of their airplanes offshore has emerged with the carriers spending $117.6 million for C-Check.

Chairman, Air Peace, Mr. Allen Onyema corroborated this in an interview with Woleshadarenew in Abuja at the just concluded World Aviation Forum (WAF) organised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

He disclosed that that on the average, Nigerian airlines pay at least $2.8m for C-Checks of aircraft while their competitors could carry out such maintenances for a mere $500, 000, adding that insurance premiums paid on aircraft is quadruple of what legacy airlines pay around the world.

The cost of aircraft maintenance would have reduced by at least 30 percent if Nigeria has maintenance facility in the country, but the absence of the facility has upped the cost of maintenance.

C-Check is performed approximately every 20–24 months or a specific amount of actual flight hours (FH) or as defined by the manufacturer.

This maintenance check is much more extensive than a B check, requiring a large majority of the aircraft’s components to be inspected.

This check puts the aircraft out of service, and the aircraft must not leave the maintenance site until it is completed.

Onyema maintained that all Nigerian airlines were as safe as their counterparts in Europe and America despite the harsh operating environment in the country.

This figure is a big reduction in the amount of money spent in previous years on airplane maintenance overseas which came as a result of depletion of depletion by 55 percent over the past year.

Investigation shows that the fleet of the country’s carriers has reduced from almost 81 aircraft about a year ago to just 42 today, while many others are grounded.

In the wake of economic recession that affected carriers, Air Peace and Azman were the only carriers that expanded their fleet to cope with huge traffic in the wake of Arik Air crisis which shifted the pendulum, albeit temporarily to Air Peace.

Many of the country’s airlines downsized and reduced their fleet. Carriers like Aero massively downsized to less than four airplanes and laid off over 300 workers.

Onyema stated that the costs of this maintenance are occasioned by classification of Nigeria as a high risk country for aviation and airline business.

He however lambasted the tag, saying the country’s airlines rank among the safest in other parts of the world.

It was learnt that due to the air mishap which claimed the lives of passengers and crew members, major aircraft leasing firms such as GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), Cab Tree and Aercap have raised lease on aircraft to Nigerian airlines by over 40 per cent and with a plan to hike it to 50 per cent soon.

“I don’t know what they are talking about. Let me tell you something, which you know. NCAA in fact is safety-centric maybe because of the accidents of the past. They hound the airlines into doing the right thing. We are over-regulated by NCAA. What they can allow in America and Europe, NCAA will not allow it here”.

He said the money airlines spend to maintain their fleet in Nigeria, legacy airlines of the world do not spend it.

Onyema stated that he had never done any C-check that is less than $2.8m, stressing that all over the world, “People do C-Check with $500,000 because some components that will expire in two or three months are still left on the aircraft because they are very close to source of materials unlike here that we have to do everything at a go”.

 “They tell you Nigeria is unsafe in order to add more insurance premiums for themselves. What I pay as insurance premium on one aircraft, the legacy airlines of this world would pay it on four aircraft. They tell you Nigeria is unsafe and yet, all of them still scramble to come here. It is what I call international aero politics, which is very bad,” he added.

In a related development, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has rated the continent’s airlines very high in terms of safety and maintenance of fleet.

According to the body, African airlines had significantly improved in safety, which explains why there had not been any commercial air accidents among the carriers in the past two years.

Onyema also condemned multiple designations granted foreign airlines in Nigeria, stressing that this was affecting the finances of the local airlines.

He also warned against quick implementation of the Yamoussoukro Declaration (YD) of 1999 by the Nigerian Government, emphasising that Nigeria had a lot to lose in the policy than any other African country.

He further said if it was allowed to scale through, the country’s carriers would be the loser on the long run.

No fewer than 23 of the 54 continent’s governments had signed the YD agreement while more are expected to do so soon.

Below, number of aircraft by airlines in operation

Wole Shadare