The cost of operations of airlines operating in Nigeria may soon reduce with the establishment of hangars in the country by aircraft maintenance organisations (AMOs).
When they fully begin operations, the AMO, of which Nigeria presently has four, could save the country about $8.8m annually being the cost of maintaing aircraft in foreign AMOs.
Three of these hangars are located at the Murtala Muhammed Airport and are owned by Carveton Helicopters, Aero Contractors and Bristow helicopter while DANA Airlines has a maintenance outfit in Kaduna.
Afrijet hangar is currently under construction at the Lagos airport while Arik Air, the airline that acquires the hangar of the defunct Nigeria Airways, has commenced the expansion of the hangar.
Since the beginning of air travel in Nigeria, no business concerns has registered as an aircraft maintenance organisation.
An AMO, which is a certified hangar that specialises in the maintenance of aircraft, is capable of carrying out all categories of maintenance, including the total overhauling of aircraft.
The absence of such an organisation, operators said, had cost airlines millions of dollars annually to fly their aircraft for maintenance.
Although there are about four medium size hangers built by some airlines for the maintenance of their aircraft, stakeholders expressed fear that they may not be able to satisfy the industry need.
While some airlines have been grounded due to lack of financial capability to ferry flight their aircraft for maintenance, foreign AMOs, due to failure to meet up with appropriate maintenance fees, have detained some aircraft belonging to Nigerian airlines.
IRS, Fresh Air, Allied Air, SMA are some of the operators whose aircraft are still on ground at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, as at press time because they are due for maintenance abroad.
Some of the operators, however, said they had not been able to ferry flight them abroad because they were still waiting for slots at foreign maintenance outfits.
The Chief Operating Officer of Arik Air, Mr. Michael McTighe, said there were plans to expand the hangar�s operation and make it available for other airlines.
�We are going to expand the hangar and if other airlines want to use it, we would commercialise it. For higher checks that will be in the next two years, we have to build the workforce, the engineers, technicians and avionics that would work there,� he told our correspondent in an interview.
An aviation consultant and a member of Aviation Round Table, Mr. Taiwo Adenekan, however called for registered maintenance organisation capable of carrying out all level of maintenance.
�What we need is a maintenance organisation. You don�t have to be an airline. All these small maintenance hangars built by some airlines are being done out of the area of their core competence. We should have an AMO that can built from a turbo prop to jumbo jets,� he said.
Another aviation consultant, Captain Dele Ore, however, believed that the hangars springing up would save cost.
�The ones that are coming up as long as they are up to the standards they are bound to save funds for the airlines. Where you have economic gains, then it strengthens your safety stand. It is a remote consequence that if the people manage to save money from maintenance that would be done outside. Then they would have more money to do other things,� he added.