Airlines to set up MRO facilities, not government -- Adeyileka

The clamour for Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facilities in Nigeria’s aviation sector has been lingering without yielding any positive result. Perhaps, the reason is because the airlines have been shying away from their responsibility while blaming the government for not being responsive to their plight.

It is estimated that Nigeria’s indigenous airline operators spend over N250 billion annually to carryout major maintenance of their aircraft overseas. The amount constitutes about 40 to 50 percent of their cost of operation, almost sapping them dry of their ticket sales.

“Had there been MRO facilities in the country, we wouldn’t be spending that much,” the airlines would always say through their mouthpiece -- Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON). But whose responsibility is it to set up the facilities; government or the airlines?

The Director, Airworthiness Standards and one time Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Engineer Benedict Adeyileka, has disabused the erroneous impression held by the airliners that government owns the responsibility to establish MRO facilities in the country. According to him, it is more appropriate for the airlines to own the facilities so that the managerial onus won’t be politicized, which may eventually lead to premature crash of the facility.

“I believe every airline knows that aircraft maintenance is crucial to its survival. It would be wise for the airlines to own MRO facilities and stop waiting for government to do everything. The danger is that government has a way of politicizing issues. One administration will come and say ‘okay, let’s have the facility’ but another one will come and say ‘no, it’s capital intensive’ and everything will crumble at that moment,” he said.

He, however, noted that government can only support the airlines by providing them loans and suitable space to build the facility. He added that such support could be tailored toward Public Private Partnership so that government won’t have much to do with managing the facility wholly.

Adeyileka said this while presenting a lecture at a forum of aeronautical engineers held yesterday -- 27^th October, 2016 – at the NCAA Annex, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

Dwelling on the theme of his presentation – “Airline Survival in an Economic Recession: The Role of Aircraft Engineers,” Adeyileka commended the team of engineers for recognizing that their role is quite crucial to the survival airlines. He encouraged them to sustain the culture, adding that maintenance is key to survival of airlines, not just in an economic recession.