Aircraft Checks: Airlines to Spend $3bn in 2024, May Cut Down on Operations

Chinedu Eze

With the fast depleting of aviation equipment, coupled with the scarcity of foreign exchange, Nigerian airlines may spend over $3 billion to conduct checks on their aircraft overseas in 2024, THISDAY has learnt.

As at last week, the number of operating aircraft was reduced to about 43 because some of the existing aircraft that were taken out for checks are still in maintenance facilities overseas due to lack of foreign exchange to ferry them back to the country.

It was learnt that as a result of FX crisis, existing aircraft due for maintenance are grounded.

Some of the airlines that are still operating are considering closing some routes to concentrate on profitable ones, as they continue to record reduction of the number of aircraft in service.

The depreciation of the naira has made the cost of maintenance very high, as airlines, which earn revenue in the local currency must have to spend over 200 per cent of what they spent in 2015 for the same cost of aircraft maintenance overseas.

The Head of Aero Contractors Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Division, James Ominyi, told THISDAY that the major challenge the airlines are facing is about conducting the maintenance of their aircraft overseas at huge cost.

He said the depreciation of the naira and the scarcity of foreign exchange, have made it very difficult to pay for the conduct of heavy checks outside the country.

Ominyi who is renowned aircraft engineer said: “It is really difficult because an airline may budget about #300, 000 for C-check but when the aircraft is opened up, there could be more work to be done and the cost of maintaining will skyrocket to about $1 million, which is equivalent to about N1.3 billion at the moment and about N350 million in 2015.”

He posited that taking aircraft out of the country remained a huge challenge because of the cost of maintenance, the cost of ferrying the equipment and cost of other logistics, adding that Nigeria does not have adequate number of aircraft maintenance facilities.

Currently there are two maintenance facilities for schedule commercial aircraft: Aero Contractors and 7Star but they cannot maintain all categories of aircraft in Nigeria’s airline fleet, which include Bombardier, Embraer, Boeing, Airbus and others.

Ominyi said many airlines reduced fleet because the grounded ones cannot be maintained, as there is no forex to take them out and pay for their checks.

All the airlines, including Max Air, Allied Air, United Nigeria Airlines and Rano Air are facing similar challenge, which has to do with where to maintain their equipment. They can source for foreign exchange in the banks, as some of them paid naira to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through their banks, waiting for forex, Ominyi said.

“The maintenance facilities in Nigeria can conduct major checks on Boeing 737 Classic, Bombardier Dash 8 and few others, but they do not have the approval yet to conduct heavy checks on other aircraft types. At Aero Contractors we finish C-check within two months, if the airline that owns the aircraft makes the spares available; if not, it can last as long as six months, but if everything is available we can finish C-check in six weeks. In addition to our hangar, which we are expanding, we got approval from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to use the Nigeria Air Force hangar at the Lagos airport. We can conduct C-check Boeing 737 classics, Hawker 125, Bombardier Dash 8. We also have approval to conduct B-check on Boeing 737 NG aircraft.

“Yes, a lot of Nigerian airlines aircraft are grounded. Truth is that when the Mohammadu Buhari came to power in 2015 he waited too long before he appointed Ministers and because of the uncertainty in governance, dollar which was exchanging N165 to $1 skyrocketed to N350 and later N400 and has been rising ever since. The Nigerian airlines were affected because this increased the cost of aircraft maintenance, which continued to get higher and higher. Now, an airline that is charged $1 million for heavy check will have to pay N1.3 billion.

“Local MROs may not be able to meet the demand. We at Aero MRO, we want to expand our hangar. We invited Dorman Long, an engineering firm to expand our hangar. We are able to take in three aircraft in our facility and if we put two at the Nigeria Air Force Hangar we will be able to work on four to five planes,” Ominyi said.

He stated that for several years Nigeria has been talking about national hangar, which has not been started, saying that as the national hangar is still at conception, the federal government should support Aero Contractors to expand its facility, acquire the needed equipment and take in more aircraft for maintenance.

According to him, Nigerian airlines will gain so much if majority of the aircraft in their fleet is maintained locally; that will save them money in logistics but above all, it will put less pressure on them sourcing dollars before their aircraft are maintained.

He also spoke about Ibom Air maintenance hangar at the Uyo airport, which was recently inspected by the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, who expressed hope that when it comes on stream, the facility would solve the perennial problem of ferrying aircraft overseas for maintenance.

Ominyi also noted that aircraft that needed engine change would find it difficult taking the engine to Uyo airport because the cargo aircraft that brings such equipment can only land in Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt and Abuja, adding that if the MRO was built in Lagos it would serve Nigerian airlines better and remarked that getting the right personnel would also be a challenge.

He said Aero Contractor received approval from many countries like Ghana, Mongolia, Congo and others, disclosing that it has successfully conducted checks for foreign airlines, adding that the company wants to upgrade its facility, train more personnel and secure approval to maintain Embraer ERJ145s, the Embraer E2s, the Embraer E1, E2s and C-check on Boeing 737 NG aircraft.