Chairman of Arik Air, Sir Arumemi Ikhide, has said the airline plans to rebuild its an aircraft maintenance hangar in Lagos in partnership with Lufthansa Technik, the Boeing Company and Bombardier, the Canafian aircraft manufacturer.
Ikhide explained that this month, Arik Air will sign an agreement with Lufthansa on the deal.
He explained that when completed, the hangar will not only carry out major repairs of Arik Air aircraft, but other new generation aircraft in the fleet of other domestic airlines in the country.
Speaking in an interview, after receiving the President/Chief Executive Officer of Canadian aircraft manufacturer, Bombardier, Mr Pierre Beaudoin, who visited the airline in a facility tour, Ikhide explained that the relation between Arik Air and the company could best be described as the greatest assistance from multiple lateral organisations.
He explained further that at inception, Arik Air got the first set of Bombardier Aircraft the CRJ from the company, which is the best regional aircraft that Nigerian passengers are excited over.
He spoke of plans to consolidate the relationship between the airline and Bombardier to involve other areas of airline operations, not limited to aircraft acquisition.
He said very soon, when the number of aircraft type manufactured by Bombardier increases In the fleet of the airline, discussions on maintenance facility could be explored .
Ikhide called on the Federal Government consider as priority acquiring the Bombardier aircraft type for domestic operators, in the window of purchase it is facilitating, as the aircraft type of better for the Nigerian environment in terms of cost, and other factors.
The Arik Air boss expressed gratitude to the Bombardier President for his support to the airline, affirming that the robust engagement with the airline has accelerated its growth and development despite the inherent challenges of the Nigerian environment.
Ikhide said that the utilisation of Bombardier aircraft, has assisted Arik Air in the development of new routes, even as he said the aircraft type is loved by many Nigerians.
He said :” We are very happy that the president of Bombardier is visiting Arik Air, the company are the initiator of Arik Air, they gave us the opportunity to bring in the first set of brand new airplanes into the Nigerian airspace after almost 25 years by any domestic airline,.
The hangar is going to be rebuilt, and it will take care of major repairs of aircraft, manned by Lufthansa personnel for the repairs of new generation aircraft of all airlines.
This will be affordable for everybody.”
In his comments, the Bombardier , President said :” This is a good visit to Arik Air, we started the partnership from the very beginning, and we helped to realise the vision of Arik Air of providing aircraft for safe flying in Africa.
The airline has done very well, and we are very proud of Arik Air to partner with them.
The African market is very interesting for us, what we see, is the need for Arik Air to lead other airlines to develop the regional network. In Africa there exists the challenge of regional connection, we are convinced that Arik Air as a regional leader, it could do much more.
I am very impressed with the quality of work st Arik Air, the safety procedures , this is key to our partnership.”
http://thenationonlineng.net/new/business/aviation/arik-air-to-rebuild-hangar/
No comments:
Post a Comment