Nigeria’s aviation hub potential threatened by insufficient hangers

Nigeria’s push to become an aviation hub for Africa using natural advantages such as its geographic location at the centre of the continent, huge population of over 170 million and growing middle class may be stymied as a result insufficient hangers in the country.

Priority for the government in attaining the objective of becoming an aviation hub should not be hangers for parking air planes but should be hangers for maintenance, because almost 95percent of the maintenance on the airplanes are done outside the country.

Experts has therefore propose that building standard maintenance hangers in Nigerian airports will enable us keep the foreign exchange in house and create more jobs for unemployed  youths in the country.

Nogie Meggison, Executive Chairman, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), told BusinessDay that building commercial hangers is one of the ways to create jobs in Nigeria through aviation.

“Someone will repair the airplanes, someone will fix the tires, someone will wash the airplane and someone will clean the office. So, there is a continuous effect as it makes the domestic carriers more efficient because that money that will have been spent abroad is kept here and spent on maintenance and payment  of labour.” Meggison said.

The chairman explained that to pay for labour rate abroad is about 150dollars per hour, which can be gotten in Nigeria for a cheaper amount, he added that keeping that money locally will improve Nigeria’s foreign exchange base.

In a functioning hanger, pilots, engineers, caterers and cleaners amongst others can be employed, thereby creating both direct and indirect jobs.

Lagos, the commercial capital houses Nigeria’s major aviation agencies, remains the choice destination for all international carriers and commands the highest traffic in and out of the country.

From all projections, Lagos would continue to grow economically and its over 21 million people would also continue to grow, so naturally the mega city would continue to be the attractive market for airline operation

As a result, Meggison stressed that the sub-region needs maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility and the natural place that such facility should be established is in Nigeria.

Meggison said “Commercial aircraft park on the ramps. The cargo ramp that I met created in 1977 when Nigeria’s population was below 100million is still the same ramp and size in 2016. Technology and other things have moved far beyond this and the government needs to catch up. So, those infrastructures are the places that the government needs to invest than buying the airlines.”

In Nigeria, there are a few functioning commercial hangers which includes commercial hangers the executive jets, Euro contractors in Lagos and in Abuja, there are about two which is quite low.

An investor, who spoke to BusinessDay anonymously disclosed after requesting for a ramp for five years, FAAN eventually responded but requested that he pays N400million with a 5percent turnover yearly.

The investor advised that government give out commercial lands, so that FAAN can build proper hangers that will repair and do a see check, then Nigeria will contribute to the economy and create employment.

Nigeria has ten domestic airlines which provide 6,538 seats to the travelling public daily.

The airlines include Arik Air, Medview, Aero, First Nation, Discovery Air, Air Peace, Azman Air and Overland.

The international airlines operating in Nigeria include Air France, Lufthansa, Region Air, Egypt Air, Sudan Airways, Middle East Airlines, British Airways, Egypt Air, and Ethiopian airlines.

Industry watchers say this number can increase if the country develops more functional airports with spare capacity and functional commercial hangers where flights can land, take off and be maintained.

Nigeria has about 26 airports but only five of the airports appear to be functional, which simply means fewer hangers restricted just at these airports which are Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos and Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt.

There has been persistent clamour for an aircraft maintenance centre for the repair of aircraft in Nigeria

Last year, Ado Sanusi, Deputy Managing Director of Arik Air, expressed dismay over FAAN’s refusal to grant the request, saying Arik Air is partnering with Lufthansa Technik of Germany to set up a major aircraft repair centre that will fix aircraft for domestic and foreign carriers in Nigeria, West and Central Africa.

He said the company applied for land at the Lagos Airport three years ago, which the authority is yet to grant.

Sanusi said: “There is no doubt that we have the need for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in Nigeria. Arik made a request to FAAN three years ago for a parcel of land at the Lagos International Airport. He said Arik went further to sign an agreement with Lufthansa Technik to build the MRO that will cater for Boeing B737-700 and other wide body aircraft not only for Arik, but for other airlines both in Nigeria and overseas.

“Suffice to say that this will even generate revenue for the government through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigerian Customs Service and others. However, this has been put on hold until Arik gets final approval for allocation of land at the Lagos airport. Everything has been done; we are just waiting for final approval from FAAN. It has been on hold for the past three years,” Sanusi said.

Also speaking, Allen Onyema, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace,  accused officials of FAAN of frustrating efforts by indigenous operators and other investors to set up aircraft maintenance centres around the airport due to non allocation of land.

He said: “There are many ways government can assist domestic airlines. If government cannot build an aircraft maintenance hangar in Nigeria, it should assist any operator willing to invest in that area by securing a large parcel of land around any airport in the country.

“Such a project will create more jobs for Nigerians. Civil servants should change their ways and stop frustrating private enterprise through unnecessary bureaucracy. For over one year, Air Peace has applied to FAAN to allocate it land to build an aircraft maintenance facility, but the authority has not granted the allocation,” Onyema said

Onyema noted if FAAN has allocated Air Peace land at any airport, the project since the past one year, it would have been completed before they start flight operations and many banks, given their integrity and track record, would have funded the project.

“If we build an aircraft maintenance centre in Nigeria, our country would become a hub where African countries would fly in their aircraft for repairs. That would generate huge money for Nigeria and Nigerians. People say aviation does not generate enough money, that is not correct, Ethiopia as a country is generating huge foreign exchange from its airline and aircraft maintenance centre in Addis Ababa,” he mentioned.

Onyema pointed out that having an aircraft maintenance hangar in Nigeria will assure safety while also bringing investment into the country.

“The airport authority should serve the people of Nigeria, and not lord it over the people. The airport authority should create facilities for people. There is sufficient land around the airports; they do not want to give it to serious people who can invest to develop the industry,” he complained.

Onyema insisted that it is not good for airlines to be carrying out aircraft maintenance at the ramp. He said even the Air Force hangar where some domestic airlines repair their aircraft is not big enough. Besides, there are airlines that want to have their own hangar.

BusinessDay learnt that more than 13 years ago, efforts by some individuals in partnership with American firms to set up the National Hangar Project christened Aircraft on Ground (AOG), at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, did not materialise.

Investigations reveal that FAAN, in the last few years, allocated some parcels of land to some fixed based/charter jet operators, including Executive Jets/Quints Aviation Centre, Evergreen Apple Nigeria Aviation for aircraft repair centres, which operate at the international wing of the Lagos Airport. Also, rotary wing operator, Caverton Helicopters was recently allocated land at the airside of the Lagos Airport where it is currently building its hangar and simulator centre for West Africa.

Nick Fadugba, Former Secretary General of African Airlines Association( AFRAA), disclosed that a study on the construction of maintenance hangar facilities has been in the pipeline for close to 10 years but  wondered what happened to that study.

He said Nigeria needs a maintenance facility urgently, as there is no serious aviation nation in the world without a MRO facility. According to him, until Nigeria is able to tap into this, the nation cannot be taken as being serious in the aviation business.

However, FAAN had denied allegations that it was frustrating efforts by some local carriers to build aircraft maintenance hangers in the country by refusing to allocate land to them.

Yakubu Dati, FAAN’s General Manager, Corporate Communications said the allegation of non allocation of land to the operators to build aircraft hangars is not true.

Dati who refused to disclose the amount FAAN charges individuals and organisations for hangers, told BusinessDay that FAAN had given out several hangers to individuals and organisations and requirements are simple to apply.

However, few months ago, the Airports Authority of India allotted 1,00,000 sq.ft of land to the airline at the Chennai airport for construction of a hangar. The construction of the hangar cost about $40 million and is to take 14 to 20 months to be completed.

 

Ifeoma Okeke