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Chief Executive Officer, 7-Stars Global Hangar, Engr Isaac Balami
Posted by Sade Williams
The aviation industry may take longer period than expected to recover from the effect of the current Covid -19 pandemic ravaging the entire world as the sector continued to be impacted negatively.
Access to spare parts and technical supports is fast becoming a mirage as airline operators find it increasingly difficult to acquire spares , no thanks to Covid 19 crisis.
The Chairman of 7Star Global Hangar, Engr. Issac Balami, in an interview on the impact of the pandemic on aviation, disclosed that aviation will never be the same again as most technical support firms across the globe are working from home unlike in Nigeria.
“Nigeria’s Aviation industry is one of the luckiest in the world. This is because most engineers are still working compare to other countries where they are not working”
Balami noted that the shut down has slowed down a lot of things especially in getting parts for immediate attention for aircraft on ground while some foreign business partners have also bowed out as a result of the pandemic.
“Covid-19 posed a lot of challenges, securing parts has been a great problems, it has been slowed down by the pandemic”
He said with the slow pace of getting spares, 7star hangar has already evolved means of getting the basic things needed on daily basis and will not wait until aircraft were totally groundef, disclosing that it has started work on its wire house
Balami, who noted that with the waivers granted on aircraft spare parts will allow airline operators to invest, blamed the current situation of lack of funds on the Forex crisis, stressing that the Central Bank hardly give out dollars to airlines.
He said the exchange rate of N470 to dollar has greatly affected the cost of aircraft maintenance.
Balami, who is also the president of Hangar owners association of Nigeria, advised airline operators to carry out their maintenance checks in the country to save some funds.
He disclosed that that C-Checks outside Nigeria will cost not less than $500000 without buying spares while it will cost far less than the amount, locally.
