The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has given Approval Maintenance Organisation (AMO) licence to maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility owned by 7-Star Global Hangar
The company was established by Nigerian aircraft engineers, working in collaboration with Jordanian, American and European technical partners.
The facility will provide service for Boeing B737 aircraft with stock of spares, which means airlines will not waste time importing spares for their aircraft.
Chief Executive Officer of 7 Star Global Hangar, Isaac Balami, said that the aim is to provide maintenance service to for Boeing aircraft, which are the major equipment operated by many Nigerian carriers.
Balami frowned at the high cost of maintenance of aircraft overseas by airline operators in Nigeria and in the West Coast, remarking that the facility would provide a relief for these operators.
Balami who is the former National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) President who served as a senior manager at Aero Contractors, said local maintenance of aircraft, including C-check would save Nigerian airlines huge resources, which are spent ferrying aircraft overseas and queuing at maintenance facilities.
Local maintenance, he noted, would save time and money for the airlines and the same quality work would be done on their aircraft.
He said that instead of exchanging Naira for dollar in order to repair their aircraft, 7 Star Global Hangar would accept the local currency, which would also save domestic carriers huge amount of money.
Balami said maintenance would be conducted on Boeing Classics and Boeing New Generation aircraft, private jets military and paramilitary airplanes and other aircraft types subsequently.
He said high cost of overseas maintenance is one of the factors that contributed to the failure of Nigerian airlines, noting that this leads to capital and fleet erosion.
With local maintenance facility, airlines would now save substantially and plough back the funds to their operations.
Balami said the new maintenance facility, which is located in Abuja would start service in few weeks and can take two Boeing 737 at the same time.
“Some of the experts in the organisation have worked for more than thirty years in the aviation sector, at local and international levels. Furthermore, our technical partners from Jordan, USA and Europe bring more than 50 years combined experience to our operations in aircraft heavy maintenance, ranging from C-D Checks to aircraft paintings amongst a broad cross-section of related services.
“Together we have determined to ensure aircraft serviceability across Africa. This MRO will create hundreds of jobs in the next few months as well stimulate opportunities across the sector supply chain.”
Balami explained that an international aviation expatriate from the USA, and a founding director of 7 Star Global Hangar is a former use Managing Director of American Airlines where he was in charge of more than 1000 Aircraft that has biggest MRO in the World.
He is Dr Abiodun Asekun, a Nigerian who described the approval of the license by NCAA as “a right step in the right direction.”
Asekun expressed the hope that the MRO would partner with national carrier billed to commence operations soon
“Because there is no parking space in the air, we have put together the best brains in the aircraft maintenance, managements, engineering, modifications, fabrications, training, design and manufacturing in the ground”, Dr. Asekun said.
