By LAWANI MIKAIRU

Arik Airline has  maintained its safety record since inception because of   attention to safety details of its fleet of aircraft.  At inception, Arik Air  signed a contract with Lufthansa Technik and Lufthansa CityLine for the technical support of the carrier’s new Boeing 737-300 and Bombardier CRJ200 and CRJ900 fleet.

The contract has since grown to a Total Technical Support ,TTS, contract that  covers Line maintenance at  Arik’s hub in Lagos as well as component repair and overhaul, component spare pooling and Maintenance Management Services.

Lufthansa Technik  provides the Total Component Support ,TCS, for the airline and this is complemented by Lufthansa CityLine which  provides  line maintenance support as well as engineering services.

A visit to the airline hangar reveals the fact the  airline maintenance of its aircraft is done by Lufthansa Technick engineers who are very experience and meticulous. They demonstrated these attributes when they took aviation reporters round  Arik’s hanger and explained the maintenance schedules and procedures  of the airline.

Daily, weekly and routine maintenance are done at the hangar. Lufthansa technik also carry out A and B Checks on Arik planes at the Lagos hangar. C Checks and other heavy maintenance ,like gear change, are taking to  countries  like Malta, Dakar, etc that have bigger maintenance facilities.

Aircraft maintenance are periodic inspections that have to be done on all commercial, civil and military aircrafts, after  a certain amount of time or usage.

The time frame for maintenance procedures is based on a combination of the number of hours the aircraft flies, the number of take-offs and landings, referred to as “cycles”,  it makes, plus the age of the aircraft.

Arik Airline planes are given Periodic Service ,”PS”, Daily Checks by Lufthansa Technik engineers. Each aircraft in the fleet  is visually inspected and its maintenance log book is checked for entries and maintenance needs. The “PS” check can be performed overnight or during  the flight day.

It averages approximately two man-hours. “A” Checks  done by the engineers on Arik fleet is  more detailed than the “PS” check. “A” checks are performed roughly once a week  at approximately 60 flight hours.

Ariks planes also undergo the “B” check  in the Lagos  hangar of the airline as the facilities in the hangar can handle this. The ‘’ B’’ check is a more thorough maintenance check.

The “B” check is done approximately once a month ,roughly 300 – 500 flight hours. Besides specific service performed on the aircraft, a detailed series of systems and operational checks are performed. A “B” check according to experts ‘’requires approximately 100 man-hours on narrow body aircraft ,those with only one aisle, and approximately 200 – 300 man-hours on wide body aircraft, those with two aisles.

Presently, Arik Air carries out heavy maintenance and “C” checks of the fleet outside Nigeria. The planes are sometime taking to Senegal, Egypt, South -Africa where there are heavy maintenance and engineering centres  . The “C” check is  a  thorough type of maintenance work . The airframe , virtually the entire aircraft , goes through an exhaustive series of checks, inspections and overhaul work.  There are different levels of “C” checks depending on the type of aircraft.

These technical details were explained during the facility tour conducted by the various heads of technical departments. These technical heads include Capt. Ado Sanusi, Arik Air Vice President for Flight Operations, Capt. Rob Thomas, Senior Vice-President for Operations of the airline, Lufthansa Technik team leader  Mr Mike Ronnerberger  and  the spare parts warehouse manager.

The facility tour started from the airline Operation Control Centre where aviation reporters saw first hand how the schedule and movement of the Arik planes are planned and flights scheduled. The Control Centre enables Arik to know the position and movements of its plane at every point in time.

The Control Centre has weather forecast monitor where 48 hours weather forecast can be made to enable the airline plan its flight schedule. Arik planes have modern equipment like GPRS, which is satellite based.  Though Arik planes have capabilities to fly at even extreme weather and  make pin point landing,the airline still subject its flight schedules to Nigerian Meteorological Agency,  NIMET, weather forecast  and Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA ,control tower directives.

The vision to build a safe and reliable airline was clearly stated by the then Managing Director of Arik Air,  Alex van Elk , when during the signing of the technical agreement with Lufthansa Technik, he said

“Building an airline that will set new standards in Nigeria, we are relying on a partner, which knows its business for many decades. Lufthansa Technik is our natural choice to ensure the highest reliability from the first take-off,”

.The commitment to making Arik Air one of the safest airline in Africa was emphasized at the occasion by Walter Heerdt, Senior Vice President Marketing & Sales, Lufthansa Technik. He said “Today we are committing ourselves together with Lufthansa CityLine to support Arik Air’s vision for a new travel experience in Nigeria. From this minute Arik Air will take advantage of the scale effects and savings of more than 1,200 aircraft under total support contracts with us.”