Aero Contractors Conducts First C-Check on B737-500 classics aircraft
…returns to profitability
Foremost Nigerian airline, Aero Contractors Airline now prides itself as the first Nigerian airline to carry out C-Check on a Boeing B737-500 classics aircraft in West and Central Africa.
A C-check is a detailed maintenance check where the entire component of an aircraft is inspected for the purpose of repair and maintenance. It is heavier than A and B checks and can take up to three weeks to conduct a C-check which requires up to 6,000 man-hours. This, the airline successfully did locally, recently.
Speaking during the formal roll-out ceremony of Aero Contractors Airline’s 5N-BLG Aircraft that successfully completed C-check maintenance exercise at Aero Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in Lagos, the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika said that the feat achieved by Aero Contractors was due to its resilience and rare ability to think resourcefully outside of the box.
Sirika, who was represented by the Chief Executive Officer, Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Engr. Akin Olateru stated that Aero Contractors was at the brink of being written off as history for being another failed Nigeria airline but that today Aero stands tall making remarkable history as the first indigenous airline to undertake C-Check on Boeing 737-500 Classic airplanes.
In his words:“This is highly commendable and I am proud and make bold to say that what has happened is a fallout of the present administration’s promise to bring about a positive change in the polity. We have succeeded in creating an enabling environment for business recovery, growth and sustainability especially for the aviation industry.”
He pointed out that Nigeria experienced huge capital flight of not less than $1.8 million and $3million per Boeing aircraft that left Nigeria’s shores for C- Check, adding that there are more than 30 of such aircraft operating.
Speaking in the same vein, Managing Director, Aero Contractors Airline, Mr. Abdul Sanusi, said the feat was necessitated by the need to maintain its aircraft locally.
Sanusi declared that the days when domestic airlines take their aircraft for maintenance abroad were over, stressing that conducting a C-check abroad amounted to huge capital flight.
According to him, Aero Contractors would be conducting the checks for all domestic airlines in Nigeria and across the West and Central Africa region, affirming that the airline has bounced back to a state of profitability.
In his words: “Right now, three of our aircraft are up for maintenance and for third party maintenance, we have about six aircraft; so the entire year is busy for us because before the end of the year, we will have a full bay maintenance facility in the country”.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Comment
No comments found.