16 Jul 2019
African aviation has a quandary: operators can't afford to keep spending their maintenance budgets abroad, while establishing their own maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities is prohibitively expensive. But there is movement in the right direction, as Chuck Grieve reports.
Africa embodies "great unrealised potential" in aircraft MRO, and a growing number of international and domestic operators are moving to provide for the continent's needs.
Inspiration comes from the successes and ambitions of the likes of Nigeria's Aero Contractors and the maintenance divisions of Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airlines, and the drive of global companies such as the parts supplier AJW, Lufthansa Technik and ExecuJet.
With more than $1.5 billion annually in airlines' heavy maintenance spend lost to the continent, there's no lack of incentive to help keep MRO at home.
Hafsah Abdulsalam, AJW group sales director, is hopeful that the single African air transport market (SAATM) accord will help Africa realise its potential by encouraging collaboration and cooperation and a pan- African outlook to MRO.
From west Africa, Chidi Izuwah, acting director-general of Nigeria's Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), said it was "incomprehensible... considering the importance of MRO" that the region does not have its own facilities.
Nigeria recently took the step of advertising for private sector partners to help underwrite the cost of MRO facilities. The government is reportedly looking at a build-operate-transfer (BOT) arrangement at either Abuja or Lagos...
BENEFITS FROM PAN-AFRICAN OUTLOOK
African aviation is prone to frequent change, according to AJW group sales director, Hafsah Abdulsalam. It means companies such as AJW, with a "continental" footprint developed over many years, need to help industry keep its accumulated knowledge current. This leads to, what Abdulsalam calls, "co-creation of solutions".
AJW is an independent specialist in the global management of commercial and business aircraft spares, supporting airlines, MROs and original manufacturers (OEMs) with the exchange, repair and lease of and engine components.
"We try to understand how a customer's operation works, how we fit into that equation and how we can enhance their own requirements or targets," said Abdulsalam. "If an airline asks for contractual support and we know from experience that it would not work for them, we will say so and suggest an alternative. Then we'll work with them to deliver to their requirements."