United Nigeria Airlines and Cronos Aviation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to construct aircraft Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) facility in Nigeria; just as the domestic operator has added more aircraft to its fleet to boost capacity.
The partnership which included code-share clauses will enhance the training of Nigerians in aircraft maintenance, transfer of technology and extension of Nigerian carrier’s operations to the Central and West African destinations.
Cronos Aviation has aircraft maintenance and airline commercial services arms and the company has been operating in the West Coast of Africa, Central Africa with maintenance facilities at Oliver Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa and extended aviation services in Europe and Canada.
He said the maintenance facility will fill the gap that exists in West and Central Africa, where there is no major MRO that serves the aircraft market in the sub-regions and the facility will service most of the aircraft that operate across the countries in these areas, specialising in Boeing 737 Classics, B737NGs, B777, Airbus, Embraer and other aircraft types.
Speaking during the signing of the MOU in Lagos at the weekend, the chairman of United Nigeria Airline, Professor Obiora Okonkwo, said the choice of Cronos Aviation is driven by its track record and capacity.
“Cronos International has an already existing MRO in South Africa at the O.R Tambo International Airport. They have been operating for more than 13 years with the certification to maintain Embraer aircraft and Boeing 737.
So, we are signing an MRO in partnership with Cronos to set up such services here in Nigeria. As you may know, we do not have MRO capability to do base services in Nigeria,” Okonkwo said.
He explained that besides aviation fuel, another component that erodes revenue of airlines is aircraft maintenance, adding that the United Airlines’ new partnership with Cronos will help to reduce operating costs, help the nation save its scarce foreign exchange and open up a new door for other aspects of strong participation in aviation.
Professor Okonkwo disclosed that there is a high number of aircraft on ground (AOG) resulting from high foreign exchange and the inability of the airlines to source foreign exchange to ferry the aircraft already grounded in Nigeria to maintenance facilities overseas and also to bring back their aircraft ferried overseas for maintenance due to high exchange rate, remarking that the demand on forex will reduce when these aircraft are maintained locally.
“So, this has a multi-dimensional benefits. Not only to the United Nigeria Airline, but also to the entire industry, the nation in the area of saving foreign exchange, manpower development, technology and know-how transfer. So, this is on the area of the MRO.
“Cronos also has operations going on in some West African countries. Cronos comes in and out of the Port Harcourt from time to time. So, this interline and codeshare agreement will help us to put all the infrastructures in place and take all the necessary steps to integrate our services to provide strong regional operation.
“This will open up our air travel in the region and help commercial activities. Interline is very important. It will also enable us to take advantage of the fifth freedom that is going on, that is already in place in the aviation ecosystem here,” he said.
Giving a breakdown of how the maintenance facility will reduce capital flight in the aviation sector, Okonkwo explained that for a basic C-check for the least aircraft outside Nigeria, airlines expend an average of half a million dollars; that is, if there are no major issues discovered in the aircraft.
His words: “Some of these checks are done either on cycles or by calendar. But here in Nigeria, the local operators, do more with cycles than calendar because we operate high cycles due to the short distance that we fly. You know that when you talk about cycle, if you take off from Lagos and fly 16 hours non-stop to China, it is one cycle. But if you take off from Abuja and fly 40 minutes to Anambra, it is one cycle.
“We have to do many cycles to break even on an aircraft due to our sunset and sunrise operations. We don’t live in a country where you fly for six hours and remain in the same country.
“In Nigeria, we fly short distances. So, because of this, our maintenance period comes faster. So, for an average aircraft in Nigeria to break even within the sunset and sunrise area flight window, it should be doing about six to eight cycles.
“If you multiply that six-to-eight cycles and the aircraft works every day without AOG, then you can know that the highest you can clear on a particular C-check might give you about 3,000 hours or 24 calendar months.
“So, if you break down 3,000 hours into circles, it comes very quickly. So, an aircraft in a Nigeria goes out for C-check, within one year or one and a half. And sometimes, you may even have the money, but you don’t have the slot for maintenance.”
Okonkwo who is the spokesman of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) stated that currently Nigerian airlines have more aircraft on ground than those that are flying, but assured that the scarcity of aircraft will not affect safety because regulation is tough and the operators are very responsible.
Speaking on plans to boost its fleet, Okonkwo said between now and the second quarter of next year, the United Airlines would acquire six Embraer190 (E190) aircraft, adding that the airline has already acquired a new E190 aircraft and plans to acquire another aircraft by first quarter of next year and another two by the second quarter of next year
He said: “For us, this is a new fleet. We have to develop the capacity, both the cabin crew, the cockpit crew, and the ground engineering crew. And this is also part of the partnership we have signed. As we speak, our first set of cockpit crew are starting their training.
“And then, when they finish their ground training, they will be flying outside the country for their simulator. The engineering team that are on ground are already signed to start training with our line engineers on ground.
“Our cabin crew that will man the E190, which is our new fleet, had completed a greater part of their training, some of them overseas. They have just returned and the continuing part of the training should be line training, while they are flying before they are signed up.
He said this training will earn them not only Nigeria certification as cabin crew, but European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification, adding, “In United Nigeria, we take training very seriously and a good number of our staff have benefited from that. So, that EASA certification, as you know, is not only operating on Nigerian standard but European standard.”
Chinedu Eze
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