Nigerian airlines plan to renew fleet

 By Wole Shadare(The Guardian)

Associated to spend $30m on four aircraft
EVEN as the fact that the age of an aircraft may not matter in aviation safety, Nigerian airlines have commenced moves to invest on fuel efficient and younger fleet.
Already, Associated Airline has expended $30 million for the acquisition of four regional jets, Embraer ERJ 145 aircraft that are expected in the country before October this year.
Air Nigeria, one of the carriers designated on international routes is equally in the process of acquiring younger fleet to boost its operations both on the domestic, regional and long haul routes. One other airline was also said to be mapping out strategy to acquire new aircraft.
Despite a chequered early development history, the 50 seats ERJ-145 has become a runaway sales success.
The Managing Director of the Associated Airline, Cordelia Ekwueme said the carrier was currently evaluating its fleet, adding that at present, two of these aircraft are awaiting inspections from the with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) at the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved maintenance facilities.
The airline chief however said the decision by the airline to re-fleet was not really due to the age of their fleet but based on passengers’ comfort.
“We fly the turbo props and we introduced news jets 18 months ago. We found out that passengers were very acceptable and receptable about it.  But we are still phasing the turbo props out as the jets appear to be more preferred by the passengers, based on our survey”, she said.
”We want to correct the impression that age is synonymous with safety. I was talking to a friend that if you are a 30-year old man and you have a heart transplant, and they give you the heart of a five year old, how old is your heart? That is how aircraft are. When you go for a C-Check, they tear the aircraft apart, and replace every single thing. So, when the aircraft comes back, it has a new lease of life. A five year old aircraft that is not well maintained is worse than a 30 year old aircraft that is maintained”.
Ekwueme enjoined all the airlines to cooperate to ensure that they achieve economy of scale, adding that the cost of building maintenance facilities was enormous but achievable.
She added that given the huge amount spent on maintenance of aircraft abroad, it was very necessary to have the Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) facility in Nigeria.
She lamented that taking aircraft abroad for maintenance amounts to capital flight, disclosing that it costs as high as $1 million for a C-Check to be carried out on an aircraft.
A C-Check is performed approximately every 15 to 21 months or a specific amount of actual Flight Hours (FH) as defined by the manufacturer. This maintenance check is much more extensive than a B Check, as pretty much the whole aircraft is inspected.
This check puts the aircraft out of service and until it is completed, the aircraft must not leave the maintenance site.
It also requires more space than A and B Checks - usually a hangar at a maintenance base. The schedule of occurrence has many factors and components as has been described, and thus varies by aircraft category and type.
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