Experts fault plans to assemble training aircraft in Nigeria

The Federal Government’s plan to facilitate the establishment of a training aircraft assembly plant in Nigeria may be scuttled as a result of the absence Maintenance Repair and Overhaul, (MRO) facilities and requisite personnel to man them.

BusinessDay’s checks show that the training aircraft assembly plant initiative involves two foreign firms, Austria Aircraft Manufacturing Company and Diamond Aircraft Industries, which are to collaborate with a local firm, Interjet Nigeria Limited.

The Federal Government two weeks ago, announced that when established, the assembly plant would cater to the West African market and beyond.

The aircraft types planned for assembly are the Diamond Training single and double engine models.

The package is said to include professional high fidelity Diamond Simulation flight training devices.

Seun Peters, managing director of Interjet Nigeria Limited, who confirmed the plan, said decisions would soon be taken on the project.

“Interjet Limited, in partnership with Diamond Aircraft of Austria, is working towards building a state-of-the-art maintenance facility in Abuja, to service Nigeria and other West African countries. We are confident that in view of our experience, the dream of the Buhari -led administration to turn Nigeria into a leading aviation hub for the  sale and maintenance of aircraft in Africa, will be realised,” he said.

“An aircraft assembly plant is highly capital intensive. We have not started assembling cars in Nigeria and we are talking about aircraft, something that requires special training and huge level of tooling, said Dung Pam, former chairman, governing board of the Nigerian Aviation Safety Initiative (NASI).

Pam further said,“This may be successful if we started by having a functional MRO which will run for one year or more, with Nigerian engineers fully involved in the maintenance processes. The MRO just shows that we have our own aircraft engineers involved in removing things and putting them back inside the aircraft.”

Pam explained that having an assembly plant involves a lot of quality control which Nigeria presently lacks, adding that what Nigeria has is a hangar where engineers only service the aircraft.

John Ojikutu, secretary-general of the Aviation Round Table (ART) and chief executive officer of Centurion Security and Safety Consults, also says that Nigeria does not have the technology in-country, to back up the plans of government to set up such assembly plants.

“We should also look at the local content, in terms of material or manpower. Whatever thing we really want to do, we must create an environment where people coming to invest from outside the country will trust us. The infrastructures are not there, government policies cannot be relied on,” Ojikutu said.

He further explained that rather than government partnering with organisations, government should allow them do it on their own. “If we are not transparent about things like this, then we will have problems in the long run. We have problems with people we gave licence to establish refineries over 16 years and we are not getting anything from it. Government should be careful with their policies, so that they attract foreign investors,” he added.

Isaac Balami, President, National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) says he is optimistic that an assembly plant can be operated effectively and efficiently in Nigeria, if government demonstrates dedication to it.

“The Air Beetles that are still flying in Nigerian airports were assembled years ago in Kaduna in the 1980s. It is just that at some point, we lost track. With a functional airport, capital and expertise, an assembly plant can work effectively in Nigeria.

“We can start fabricating locally and expand gradually but the advantage is that most of the man power will be done here but we will just bring in some few experts from overseas and within a short period, Nigerians will get involved. The only thing Nigeria needs is the will,” Balami said.

He noted that Nigeria should address the issue of customs duty waivers, as incentives to attract technical partners. “The challenges in the aviation sector have nothing to do having an assembly plant. In the United States, the Boeing aircraft engines are assembled from various part of the country. We can buy engines from Canada, United Kingdom, or anywhere else.

BusinessDay’s checks show that for assembly plants to be built in a country, the country must first have design offices and engineering centres where architecture integration, general design, structural design, computation, integration tests and systems are carried out.

The country also needs a production organisation to manage industrial activities and meet demand as it grows; a transportation system to airlift the large, pre-assembled sections of its jetliners from their production locations to final assembly lines. The products must undergo a complex, rigorous flight test and certification campaign, ensuring each aircraft meets contractual specifications before handover.

In 1966, Boeing was awarded a $525 million contract from Pan American World Airways, to build an assembly plant. This, when calculated in naira will cost Nigeria a sum over N160billion naira.

BusinessDay’s checks show that between 2015 and 2016, the sector lost over $2 billion investment from international financiers who wanted a stake in Nigeria’s air transport sector by building an MRO but the depleting  fleet and inconsistent government policies has halted that investment decision.

 

 IFEOMA OKEKE