Relief for local airlines as AMO boosts repair capacity

•N200m investment automates facility to world standard
An investment in excess of N200 million has successfully automated the sole Aircraft Maintenance Organisation (AMO) in the country, opening its doors to heavier repair services locally.

With the processes of repairs now live via software, the MRO has attained global standard with every aspect of maintenance services now accessible and tracked real-time for enhanced efficiency.

The development is a further huge relief to local operators that have had to depend on countries like Israel, Jordan, Lithuania, and South Africa among others for aircraft maintenance services.

The Aero Contractors’ AMO, which begun aircraft maintenance in 2017 has to date conducted several C-checks and myriad of services for both local and international airlines.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aero, Capt. Ado Sanusi, said the digitalisation was informed by the increase in service scope, with more third party equipment being brought to Aero’s MRO facility for maintenance.

The management of Aero contracted Ramco, an aviation software solution provider based in India, to offer a software solution that covers everything monitoring services and capacity development.

Recall that Aero Contractors got the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority’s (NCAA) AMO approval about seven years ago, for skeletal services like wheels and brakes, NDT and Borescope Inspection (BSI).

There was, however, a push for the upgrade of the facility in early 2017 when Sanusi took over the reign of leadership amid operational challenges and resources for maintenance.

Since the facility was upgraded and got approval for C-checks in September of 2017, the facility has performed C-checks up to 6C on Aero’s and other customers’ aircraft; performed landing gear replacements, reactivation of grounded airplanes, and series of engine replacements on both local and foreign carriers.

Within the period too, the facility got approval of CAAs in Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and became the technical partner to both Passion Air in Ghana and GOMAIR in DRC.

Sanusi said the investment in capacity over the last five years, automation processes and training of at least 20 personnel, was though huge, but could not be compared with the gains and potential of the facility.

The Head of AMO, James Omiyi, said the major gain of the investment was efficient services and full value for money on offer to customers.

Omiyi said given the range of services on offer, it was near impossible to keep running the processes manually.

“That is why we subscribed to Ramco software for optimal utilisation of manpower. With the software, customers don’t need to pay engineers for work that is not done. We are now fully live on the system,” he said.

The General Manager of Ramco, Africa, Europe and Middle East, Menaka Sinha, said the software was trusted by over 22,000 users to manage more than 4000 aircraft globally.

“We are excited to add Nigeria’s leading and oldest MRO, Aero Contractors to our clientele. The successful implementation of Ramco Aviation Suite at Aero will automate manual work execution processes and enable organisation-wide visibility.

“With 75-plus aviation leaders onboard, Ramco is the solution of choice for several large airlines, top heli-operators and multiple MROs around the world. With the addition of Aero Contractors, Ramco Aviation now courts on the likes of leading industry players like Caverton Helicopters in the rapidly growing Africa region, which is now a focus geography for Ramco Aviation.”