United Nigeria Partners with Cronos to Build MRO Facility

One of Nigeria's leading carriers, United Nigeria Airline, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cronos Aviation, an international charter airline based in Montreal, to establish an aircraft Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in Nigeria.

During the signing of the MoU which took place at the airline’s office in Lagos at the weekend, the chairman United Nigeria Airline, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, said that the joint venture would establish a state-of-the-art facility in Nigeria, which would be capable of servicing both the airline's fleet and aircraft from other airlines.

According to Okonkwo, Cronos Aviation will share its expertise and technology with the airline, enabling it to train its crew and technical personnel. He also said that the MRO would eradicate aircraft maintenance turnaround times, eradicate aircraft on ground (AOG) situations.

He stated that besides aviation fuel, the exorbitant cost of aircraft maintenance abroad is a drain on the finances of airlines and that United Airlines’ new partnership with Cronos will help in reducing operating costs, save foreign exchange and open up a new door for other aspects of strong participation in aviation.

“Cronos International has an already existing MRO in South Africa at the O.R Tambo International Airport. They have been operating for more than 13 years with the certification to maintain Embraer aircraft and Boeing 737. So, we are signing an MRO in partnership with Cronos to set up such services here in Nigeria.

As you may know, we do not have MRO capability to do base services in Nigeria.

“So this has a multidimensional benefit. Not only to the United Nigeria Airline, but also to the entire industry, the nation in the area of saving foreign exchange, manpower development, technology and know-how transfer. So this is on the area of the MRO. Cronos also has operations going on in some West African countries.

“Cronos comes in and out of the Port Harcourt from time to time. So, this interline and codeshare agreement will help us to put all the infrastructures in place and take all the necessary steps to integrate our services to provide strong regional operation. This will open up our air travel in the region and help commercial activities.

“Interline is very important. It will also enable us to take advantage of the fifth freedom that is going on, that is already in place in the aviation ecosystem here,” he said.

Breaking down how the maintenance facility will reduce capital flight, Okonkwo said, “For instance, a basic C-check for the least aircraft outside Nigeria, costs a minimum of $500,000 if there are no major issues discovered in the aircraft.

“Some of these checks are done either on cycles or calendar. But here in Nigeria, the local operators, do more with cycles than calendar because we operate high cycles due to the short distance that we fly. You know that when you talk about cycle, if you take off from Lagos and fly 16 hours non-stop to China, it is one cycle.

“If you take off from Abuja and fly 40 minutes to Anambra, it is one cycle. We have to do many cycles to break even on an aircraft due to our sunset and sunrise. We don’t live in a country where you fly for six hours and remain in the same country.

“If you have to fly from Moscow to Siberia, it is about six to seven hours. In Nigeria, we fly short distances. So because of this, our maintenance period comes faster.  So, for an average aircraft in Nigeria to break even within the sunset and sunrise area, it  should be doing about six to eight circles.

“If you multiply that six to eight circles and the aircraft works every day without AOG, then you can know that the highest you can clear on a particular C-check might give you about 3,000 hours or 24 calendar months.

“So, if you break down 3,000 hours into circles, it comes very quickly. So, an aircraft in a Nigeria goes out for C-check, within one year or one and a half. And sometimes, you may even have the money, but you don’t have the slot for maintenance,” the United Airlines chairman explained.

He said currently Nigerian airline operators have more aircraft on ground than those that are flying. But assured that the scarcity of aircraft will not affect safety because regulation is tough and the operators are very responsible.

Speaking on plans to boost its fleet, Okonkwo said between now and the second quarter next year, the United Airlines would acquire six Embraer E190 aircraft.

He said United which just acquired a new E190 aircraft, plans to acquire another aircraft by first quarter of next year and another two by the second quarter of next year

“For us, this is a new fleet. We have to develop the capacity, both the cabin crew, the cockpit crew, and the ground engineering crew. And this is also part of the partnership we have signed.

“As we speak, our first set of cockpit crew are  starting their training. When they finish their ground training, they will be flying outside the country for their simulator. The engineering team that are on ground are already signed to start training with our line engineers on ground.

“Our cabin crew that will man the E190, which is our new fleet, had completed a greater part of their training, some of them overseas. They have just returned and the continuing part of the training should be line training, while they are flying before they are signed up.

He said this training will earn them  not only Nigeria certification as cabin crew, but European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification.

“So in United Nigeria, we take training very seriously and a good number of our staff have benefited from that. So, that EASA certification, as you know, is not only operating on Nigerian standard but European standard,” he added.