Sanusi: Aero Contractors Will Increase Maintenance Capabilities

Recently, Nigeria’s foremost airline, Aero Contractors Limited, marked 67 years since it started operation in the aviation sector. The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the airline, Captain Ado Sanusi, spoke to newsmen during the ceremony to mark the event. Chinedu Eze brings the excerpts: What is the impact of the intervention of this administration on the aviation industry, and what other things can be done to grow the aviation sector? Thank you so much for that very important question. In my speech I said that we believe this administration has done well in the area of infrastructure and has done well in some policy areas. But we are asking and we are telling the administration that policies and infrastructure must address the specific challenge of the industry. So, we have a very specific challenge in the industry. We do understand and we appreciate government’s efforts. I have been in this industry for the past three decades or more. So, I do understand the peculiar challenges that are affecting the industry. So, if policies are not geared towards addressing those challenges, particularly as the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development acknowledged in his speech that over 100 airlines died since the history of aviation in Nigeria. We should address that. Why are they dying? It is not normal. We should not accept the fact that there are 115 airlines dying in Nigeria and say it is normal. I think there is a particular challenge that needs to be addressed. And it is that challenge, I believe, that the industry should focus on. What do I mean by industry focus? A careful study of the challenges that we are facing will help to address them. Let me give you an example. Infrastructure is a very simple thing to take care of. Very simple, because if you have the money, you know what you want to build. You go ahead and build it. Take for example, the coastal highway being built by the Tinubu administration. Yes, you do the study. You have the money, you build it. But the aviation industry presents more complex challenges. This is an industry that for the past 100 years, we cannot remember when airlines had robust net profit. And this is an industry that is the pride of the nation. Nigeria Airways was shut down, liquidated, and everything went down. This is an industry where the fastest-growing airline in Nigeria and in West and Central Africa; in fact, in Africa, arguably, was allowed to go down. These are specific challenges that the industry faces. And I believe it is not a challenge that should be shifted to the private sector to solve. After all, when we had the banking crisis, the federal government stepped in. We don’t need to have an aviation crisis before the federal government steps in. Yes, fine, we are doing a lot. The federal government is doing a lot in airport infrastructure. The federal government is doing a lot in policies. But there are specific challenges affecting the airlines, the parastatals, and the support services. There are specific challenges affecting them that need to be addressed. After 67 years of operation in the aviation sector, what should Nigerians expect from Aero Contractors, being the oldest airline in Nigeria? Of course, we have more routes coming up. We intend to renew our fleet. We also intend to increase our capability list for the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO). Meaning we are buying equipment, we are buying tooling, and very soon we will be an Embraer centre where we will repair Embraer. We are also looking at enhancing our training capability. We are opening a new training facility very soon, and we intend to grow it up. All what is in the future for us is to be adaptive to the yearnings of our customers and also to be innovative and also to ensure that we give our customers, either in the MRO, or in the airline, a seamless and efficient and reliable service. Most importantly for us is to remain safe, and that is what we are doing. In the area of aircraft maintenance, how many countries outside Nigeria are patronising you, and what have you been doing for Nigerian airlines? In no particular order, we have performed maintenance for Spanish airline. We performed maintenance for an airline in Tajikistan. We performed maintenance for an airline in that country near Russia, Mongolia. Then if you come down to Africa, we are performing high maintenance currently for Royal Air Maroc. Then to the West of Africa, from Senegal to Mali to Ghana, and then Central Africa, we have performed maintenance for Democratic Republic of Congo, and Congo Brazil, and we are planning to expand to more African countries. It does not happen overnight, but in nine years, what we have achieved is massive. If you go to MROs that are 70 years old, you will notice that when they were nine, they didn’t achieve what we have achieved today in nine years. That gives us hope that in the coming years, we will do much more. Currently, we are planning to train engineers on the Boeing 787, and we want to be an Embraer service centre. If you observe, you will notice that the B737 Classics are going out of fashion, and then Embraer are coming in. We are in the best place to be the service provider for those aircraft types. So many airlines are considering cutting down on flight services to routes that are not profitable. Is your airline planning to do same, or is there anything you want to do differently? Yes, globally, airlines are reducing flights, or cutting off routes that are not profitable. Aero contractors is probably going to do the reverse because we look out for opportunities in the time of crisis. The management will look and see opportunities building up. As airlines are withdrawing from a particular sector, we are also looking and choosing the right equipment, and the right time, and also the right price, to make sure that we stay in business. So, yes, globally, that is the trend. But these are major airlines looking at the routes that are not profitable because of the high cost of aviation fuel (Jet A1), and they are deciding to cut routes and save costs. But we, in Aero contractors, we are having a holistic approach to it. We are looking at the crisis as an opportunity for us to grow. Because as the saying goes, you cannot shrink yourself to greatness. If you understand what I mean. You can’t be cutting routes and think you will grow. So, it’s only for the big, big, big airlines that would like to cut routes and stay big. What is the volume of your investment in your MRO that is channeled towards the maintenance level? Well, we have invested heavily, and I can say that we have invested millions of dollars in equipment and tooling. Most importantly is that we understand the need to have modern tools, and these tools that we have are modern tools. Yes, there is a lot of money spent to buy them, but as I said, we are adaptive to the new challenge that we are facing in the MRO that is coming to us. We have the toolboxes. We have invested in these toolboxes. You have to use a keycard to swipe for it to open, and then when you take a tool, if you don’t return it, it will flag you as a person who took that tool. This shows you the way we are operating safely, and then the investment in tools is protected. We have acquired the sweeper to prevent foreign object debris (FODs) that can damage engines. So, the sweeper will sweep up all pebbles and rubble, and objects that are on the apron. We cannot control bird strike, but at least we can control FODs. We have other major equipment like the scrubber. So much money was invested in the hangars, and we need the scrubber to keep it as clean as you have seen it right here. We are looking at providing more services to operators. By the way, the airline is my customer. I am their maintenance service provider. We have acquired so many equipment and tools to match the kind of maintenance service we offer to our clients.