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By Dennis Agbo

The United Nigeria Airline, UNA, has disclosed its plan of building a Maintenance, Repair, Operations, MRO, facility at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu.

An airline’s MRO is a facility for maintenance, servicing and repair of aircraft which most airlines operating in Nigeria do abroad because of the lack of such infrastructure in the country.

The Executive Director/Chief Operating Officer of UNA, Mazi Osita Okonkwo made the disclosure to newsmen, on Wednesday, shortly after the airline’s management retreat in Enugu.

Okonkwo said that what was delaying the project was the allocation of land for the project at the Enugu International airport, stating that once the land allocation is made the MRO will be built to curtail maintenance of aircraft outside Nigeria.

He said: “The MRO is a project that is dear to our chairman and if not for scarcity of land at Akanu Ibiam airport we would have completed that arrangement because the idea is that having the ability to fully maintain your aircraft is key to a successful operation; and apart from what Areo is doing, it’s unfortunate there is no major hanger or major MRO service present in Nigeria and for the kind of aircraft we have in mind, that is a very big handicap.

“So, arrangements are going on and as soon as FAAN allocates a suitable piece of land to us at Akanu Ibiam International airport, this project will move at a very fast pace. We already have arrangements in place to make sure that we have the operation working.”

Okonkwo stated that by February 12, United Nigeria Airlines would have operated commercial flights for one year and has made observations that the government and regulators of airline services need to improve on the aviation infrastructure for passengers comfort, their expectations and experiences and also operators’ ability to offer efficient services.

“So the first thing we ask is for the government to make all that is required to move the infrastructure to the next level. The second point is the regulators who are doing all they can but sometimes they have limitations in terms of resources but so far they have been very collaborative.

“The other thing is the support services from fueling, the facilities at the airport, the ground handling, the conveyors and some of the things we are asking is trying to make sure that we understand one other’s responsibility in the service chain,” Okonkwo observed.