Nigeria’s aircraft maintenance hangar’s a mirage

There is no major aircraft maintenance facility in Nigeria and West Africa. While the Uyo facility is ‘moribund’, Nigeria is yet to chart a path for national hangar. WOLE SHADARE writes

Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility at Uyo Airport, Akwa Ibom is almost moribund despite over $150 million that had been sunk into a project that started nearly 10 years ago.

The facility was built to cater for maintenance of Boeing 737 aircraft, which is about 70 per cent of commercial airplanes by indigenous airline operators, Airbus and Bombardier aircraft.

Had the government completed the project, perhaps it would have saved the country a lot of foreign exchange because most of the airlines  prefer to service their airplanes in the country.

Chief Executive Officer of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), Captain Jari Williams, stated that the vision of a world class MRO was first conceived by the Akwa Ibom State Government and an implementation plan was put in place, adding that unfortunately, and to the detriment of the Nigerian aviation industry, this noble vision was truncated due to the absence of the much-required support from the stakeholders, who ordinarily should have charted a roadmap for implementing the project.

His words, “Investing in an MRO is known to be extremely capital intensive, requires significant collaboration with other industry stakeholders, and the rate of return on investment (ROI) is rather slow. Thus, to attract willing investors, the government of the day has a key role to play especially by providing juicy incentives and business-friendly policies.

“With regret, we look back at the failure of past governments in providing the required leadership to undertake this sort of project. Similarly, they failed to put in place necessary policies and legislative framework for such a project to rest on.”

He said on the few occasions, when either state governments and/or private investors made attempts to commence an MRO, the constant bottlenecks always frustrated the implementation of such plans.

“Clearly, there is no gain stating the fact that an MRO facility is critical to the sustainability of the aviation industry, particularly in developing the capacity for maintenance of aircraft from A to D checks,” he said.

In reality, Williams said establishing an MRO entails a lot more than just building a hangar or developing the capabilities to manage the facility, adding that there are many complimentary activities that need to be put in place to support the industry, which are currently lacking at our airports.

He said on the few occasions, when either state governments and/or private investors made attempts to commence an MRO, the constant bottlenecks always frustrated the implementation of such plans.

“Clearly, there is no gain stating the fact that an MRO facility is critical to the sustainability of the aviation industry, particularly in developing the capacity for maintenance of aircraft from A to D checks,” he added.

With specific reference to the case of Akwa Ibom State’s National Hangar project, the cost of which the state government borne 100 percent, the airport was conceived on the basic principle of providing maintenance and overhaul capabilities for the nation’s aviation sector, with a climate-controlled hangar that has the capacity to house two Boeing 747 or six 737 simultaneously.

Nigerian aviation stakeholders have repeatedly challenged the government to find a solution to the problem of capital flight, as airlines have had to ferry their aircraft out and pay in dollars to those that have maintenance facilities.

Chief Executive Officer of African Aviation Services Limited, Mr Nick Fadugba, said to achieve success in MRO business in Nigeria, for example, there should be a sound business plan and competent management to drive the process.
Speaking on his paper titled ‘MRO Financing‘, Fadugba, said one of the benefits of African MROs is that it would spark off competition for foreign providers leading to more competitive pricing for African operators. He said such situation would also enhance time effect, create jobs and training for the local population while making substantial contribution to the local economy.

Maintenance costs

For Boeing 737-300, 737- 400 and 737-500, this inspection is conducted after 24,000 flight hours. Boeing 747-400 requires a D-check after 28,000 flight hours while for Airbus A-330-341, after six years.

Further investigations revealed that for instance, to carry out a C-check on a B737-300 aircraft outside the country costs between $220,000 and $250,000, while the changing of a landing gear of the same aircraft brand costs around $80,000. D-checks costs much more.

For more than two decades Nigeria had not been able to come up with concrete plans to build what they say would be a national hangar. Nigeria was long overdue for a world class Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) facility to serve the domestic and regional maintenance requirements of the aviation industry and provide support for the aircraft leasing business.  An MRO is, no doubt, a critical and very important aviation infrastructure.

The lack of maintenance has cost Nigerian airlines so much. Unless the Federal Government floats aircraft maintenance facilities, the country and airline operators would continue to lose several billions of naira to ferry their airplanes abroad for maintenance checks.

By the end of this year, Nigerian airlines are expected to spend over N400 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.

The process of taking aircraft overseas for repairs, according to aircraft engineers, takes a minimum of two weeks with a corresponding loss of about $500,000 (N160 million) for C-Check on Boeing 737, while Embraer 190 or Fokker 100 would cost $300,000 (N110 million) during the same period.

Regrettably, many of the Nigerian airlines take their aircraft abroad for repairs at exorbitant financial penalty.

More so, the aircraft are paced in queue for weeks before they are attended to. Given the complex facility requirements and the needed investment, it would be an uphill task for a single airline to build a maintenance hangar in Nigeria.

Establishing an MRO will no doubt require some sort of subvention and support by the government. It will also require other incentives such as tax waivers, provision of low interest rates, approval of pioneer status, designation as Free Trade Zone, a well-defined policy, funding from institutional lenders such as the African Development Bank or the World Bank, technology transfer, as well as collaboration with foreign manufacturers and governments, in order to create an environment in which the industry can thrive.

In addition to these, there must be guarantee of dedicated power supply, adequate housing, security approvals, airlines’ buy-in and the cooperation of the relevant regulatory agencies.

This is the only way to ensure the success of this project and the future of an MRO operation in Nigeria that will save the industry and take it well into the coming century.