Air Peace May Go Into Aircraft Maintenance Business-Onyema

Air Peace Chief Executive Officer, Allen Onyema, has sent a warning signal to Aero Contractors to up their game or the carrier will be their newest competitor in aircraft Maintenance Repair and Overhaul business.

The Air Peace boss said this on Tuesday in an interview on Arise News Business Report monitored by THE WHISTLER.

Aero contractors is Nigeria’s first and only company that is into air craft repairs and maintenance.

The Air Peace boss had lamented last week that foreign exchange scarcity was obstructing the discharge of its obligations to foreign maintenance organisations.

Onyema said, “That is one of the challenges we have in Nigeria, having to maintain our planes abroad, having to do C check maintenance and the D check maintenance abroad.

“For example, when I send any of my 737 abroad, I spend about $3m for each aircraft before they come back. So, that is a lot. That’s over a billion for some two months maintenance regime.

“It is a problem. Aero has set up an MRO they are trying, there is still room for improvement. Most of us have already started thinking about setting up MROs. That will be a separate business.

“But I like what Aero is doing, I want other airlines to support them. I give them planes atimes. I want other Airlines to support them, they can get it right, but their staff should also know that this issue of union might dissuade their customers from coming to them and they will lose their jobs.”

He said airlines want an MRO that would work seven days in a week like what is obtainable abroad.

“But the situation where some people are telling you that they don’t work on weekends, no airline will depend on that,” said Onyema.

“I have gotten my land to develop a maintenance hangar,” he said adding it was made possible by the efforts of the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sarika.

On the N4bn bailout fund given to airlines by the government,  Onyema said the government was only trying to support airlines to offset some bills.

“We should not be comparing ourselves with America, what America did and the other country did,” he said citing Nigeria’s economic capacity.

He said the government has done its best to save airlines particularly with the exception of Value Added Tax on tickets, removal of duties on airplanes imported into the country and spare parts for use in Nigeria.