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 AKIA MRO Will Boost Nigeria's Image

...2.5bn spent on manpower training

Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga,  Chairman Ibom Airport Project Implementation Committee at the weekend spoke with Nigeriannewsonnet  on the efforts of the State government so far in the development of the Ibom International Airport. A lot was revealed including the ongoing construction of a new taxi way, Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Hangar- the first in the sub region. Read Excerpts.

Sir, as the chairman of this Ibom Airport Project Implementation Committee, what gave rise to this project by the state government?

First and foremost, the plan of the state government is to make the airport a gateway to this region and as a reference point for this country in aviation industry. That is what we want to do and we are still on track on our mission. We are having tremendous support from the government and the regulatory body, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has been working with us for us to get to where we are now, but we will want to move further than that. That is why we have succeeded so far.

The entire plan of the state is to develop the airport in three phases; we have finished phase one basically with a lot of overlap of the items on phase one to phase two and then, the ultimate phase. At the beginning, we looked at an airport that would assist our people to move out because we were coming from a point that if you wanted to come into this state, you have to go through the neighbouring states, Calabar or even Port Harcourt. The roads were not the very best and any businessman that wanted to come here must devote about two days to do that. It has never been something satisfactory to us.

We realised that not just moving out of the state, which is passenger aspect of aviation, but we realised that there was a part of aviation, which government has paid very scanty attention to and that was maintenance. That was why we could not get the required categorisation internationally because if you are flying international, they must make sure you have a place where you can easily do basic assessment facilities in your country of origin, but we didn’t have that for many years.

Since the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, we’ve been planning to build a national hangar, which up till today, Nigeria has not been able to build, but Akwa Ibom State took it up as an investment and that is why we have today, the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility, which you’ve seen and by the time we finish, there won’t be more than two that can compete with it in the continent and we are happy for that.

There are lots of our aircraft that are flying out of this country and they don’t have easy access to maintenance, you have to take your aircraft to Europe for maintenance. Even the cost of ferrying, is enough to discourage you. So, we don’t want people that will compromise on this thing. If it is closer to you, and labour, which invariably might be cheaper, then an operator will be happy and willing to keep to its maintenance schedule. We also looked at it that within this Gulf region, the oil companies are crying for movement of cargo, but we don’t have it, but we are now determined to pursue that with the planned construction of a terminal cargo, which is already designed by the government. Cargo business is a very big business.

At present, your runway is one of the longest and widest in Nigeria, why did the state invest so much money on the runway, rather than divert it to other important projects at the airport?

The last two items I mentioned last; maintenance hangar and cargo terminal are what informed us to build the kind of runway that you are seeing today; 3.6km and expanded to 4.2km, 60metres wide. With this runway, we are the only airport in the country that can conveniently host an Airbus 380. The taxiway that we are building now, the dimension is the same because we don’t want an aeroplane, landing on the runway and the wings are on grass.

The international terminal that you’ve seen, we devoted one finger specifically to take an Airbus 380, when the time comes, you will see that people who are involved in cargo will want to carry as much cargo and they are now using a bigger aircraft. So, you must build a runway that will accommodate that kind of aircraft.

Not only that, it is only this airport and the Lagos Airport that are category Two in this country in terms of Instrument Landing System (ILS). That ensures that if you come in and the weather is bad for instance at the Abuja Airport and the visibility from the cockpit is less than 800 metres, and you attempt to land, if you do that, you will be violating the regulations, but here, you can come as low as 300 metres and that is because of the navigational aids and the lighting we have in place. Here, you can come as low as 30metres without seeing the runway and landing here and the visibility as low as 300 metres.

AKIA MRO under construction

All these things we put together so that it will accommodate the vision of the state in terms of investments in the industry. So far, we’ve been able to put together an interim terminal and we had hoped that when the airfield and other facilities were ready, we will just start moving people to Lagos and Abuja, but the response from the passengers overwhelmed us so that is why we are embarking on international terminal as soon as possible.

We all know that if you want to fly out of the country today to some countries, you will have to first fly to Lagos or Abuja and a lot of these people especially in the surrounding states here who want to go to Dubai for instance, I’m sure if there is an airport here that is closer to them, they will want to do that. So, we believe we have enough passengers and I know this will be a success. The oil companies are asking us when we will be commencing so that they can join us.

That interim terminal that you saw, by the time we finished the MRO, it will now be a terminal for general aviation for those with private aircraft to fly. With this, they don’t have to go to the international terminal to board their planes while the commercial airline operators will be using the international terminal for their operations.

Most countries and even state governments in Nigeria today are partnering with private investors in the development of their states, is the government not looking in this direction for its MRO facility and cargo terminal?

 We are talking to people on this, there are some people who have shown interest now that will come in, take the design, build it and operate for sometime. That will be the agreement with the state government. On the MRO, we realise that we won’t just look at just the operator, but a known name in that business so that people will be encouraged to bring their aircraft in. before you could touch somebody’s aircraft, the manufacturer must certify you and we are almost through with those things that have the approval. They came here and gave us people at supervisory level and you know the state government has spent a lot of money training engineers on ground.

They were in the United States of America for training, they came back and we attached them to some of the airlines and some have gone back to Ethiopia and they spent 14 months there again to make sure that their licenses are up-to-date. They are just waiting for the MRO to be ready. Those that are on avionics, power plant and others also joined the engineers that are working with some of the experts to maintain the airfield facilities and all that.

So, the operators will give us people at the supervisory level, then, eventually, our people will grow so that they can be in a position to release aircraft and completely take over in the future. By that time, customers will have been used to the facilities we have in here. They have shown a lot of respect to what we have here because if you go to Europe, you have to wait before you can be attended to, which at times is too long, but if you have the same operator that is maintaining aircraft in Europe and is working here, you will be glad to bring your aircraft here.

On the MRO, the state government has been calling on the Federal Government to contribute to its construction as it wants to make it a national hangar, so far, how far have you gone with this request?

It will be our pleasure if the federal government takes over the MRO facility, but from the outset, before we brought the federal Government in, they said they wanted to build a national hangar and now that Akwa Ibom is doing it, they said they would like to partner with us and they said it was going to be a national hangar.

It was the former Minister of Aviation, Alhaji YMusa Yuguda that signed on behalf of the federal government that the President has agreed, but I can tell you that up till now, not a kobo of federal government has come into this project. At a point, we wrote letters and requested for waivers for some of the things that we import, but it was not accepted. Everything that we imported from abroad, we have had to pay full duties, but we are hoping that the federal government will still come in and assist even if not to take over the project. If they take over, that will be fine, but where we are now, if they don’t come in quickly, we want to operate this airport as a private sector driven.

Federal government has its limitations and challenges, this is the same with the state governments, but if it is private sector driven, we will have a return on investments for the state. I believe with the level of consultations we’ve had with some of the private investors who are willing to partner with us, there will be standards, but all the same, I will be glad if the federal Government comes in knowing fully well that the project is not just for Akwa Ibom, but it improves the image of Nigeria aviation. We should see it from that line.

Sir, can you tell us further what the second phase of the Ibom Airport project entails?

The second phase of the project consists of the parallel taxiway, which will come in handy whenever a repair work is being done on the main runway; we can actually use the taxiway for a certain categories of aircraft because the load facilitation factor will not be the same. On the taxiway, about 30 metres will be the full compact while on the main runway is about 45 metres.

Also, part of the second phase is the second runway; this is necessary because the traffic will surely grow in the future. This phase also involves the expansion of apron because as you can see, the apron we have for now is small. The MRO apron, what you find is just about one-third of what it should be. If the MRO starts having its own aircraft, we will not be able to make use of the apron.

The international terminal also involves getting fuel underground. So, the fuel matter is going to be very seriously addressed because of the things we are doing and the fuel will pass through underground so that fuel contamination will be eliminated and all that. We also hope that all these things would be through by 2015 and the rest of the work would be done by subsequent administration. In any case, by that time, we would have gotten to a point that investors can now comfortably come in because an investor will not come and build a runway, taxiway and those things for you, they will just come and build maintenance hangars for their helicopters and other projects.

Also, we have here, which you may not find in other airports, an emergency airport control centre, we noticed that sometimes when there is an accident, you see a lot of people trying to bombard the airport for information in a disorganised way, but with what we’ve done here, that is eliminated.

When the NCAA came here, they were quite happy with us and they’ve upgraded the facility to a Search and Rescue (S&R) Centre for this region. If you don’t have an organised S&R, people will just be confused. If there is a problem, journalists, families and other interested parties should just go there and get information and we can now organised S&R better. The building is already there and ready for use with lots of equipment.

The clinic, I’m sure you have seen, the essence of that is to give attention to victims of aircraft incident or accident and the state is also looking forward to equipping other hospitals within the state. I hope we don’t have a major incident or accident, but if it does happen, we are ready for that.

Fire fighting is one of the most critical aspects of safety, how prepared are you for this incase of an incident or accident in the future?

We have three fire tenders at the airport, which are primarily aimed to combat fire incase of an incident or accident. When we had our inaugural landing in 2009, the then minister of aviation saw it and said he was going to recommend such for the Federal Government and we hope they have done so.

Also, we have an effective warning system in place. Essentially, in this region, we have bird strike as an issue and we decided to get this equipment to combat the situation. It is the only airport in this country with such equipment because if you have a bird strike, it can damage an entire engine, forgetting even an accident that it may result to, but it’s very expensive. With that, we have minimised wildlife and bird strike within the airport because if they hear the sounds, the birds would move away from the airport. It was an engineering thing that was actually designed by the American Air force for Europe and they use it in their places there. We are the first in the continent to have this kind of equipment to scare away birds; Combined Land and Air Warning Systems (CLAWS) is the name of the equipment.

I’m not saying the equipment eliminates bird strike incident, but reduces to the barest minimum bird strike within the airport. Unlike some of the equipment used in some airports to send away birds, which are specific, the CLAWS, which we use automatically changes its sound and they just fly away.

Let us take a look at security, it is a well known fact that there are lots of tension in the air when we talk about security in this country at the moment, what have you put in place to safeguard the airport, aircraft and its users?

I know a lot of passengers are happy for the convenience they are getting within the airport today, but the most critical aspect is the safety and security as you said. We have paid a lot of attention to security in this airport. Not too long ago, NCAA rated us as the most secured airport in the country and we are proud of this achievement, but we are still lifting the standard up so that others would follow. At this airport, we have a perimeter fence, internal fence for the airside and perimeter road.

Beyond that, we have a full command system in this building. From there, you can see whatever is happening within the airport to the extent that if you are coming by the gate there, we can read your plate number and this goes into data. If anything goes wrong and we want to investigate, we play it back. The equipment is being handled by the air force.

Also from the tower, we have security, which triggers off automatically in case of anything; it is automatic and gets information of the aircraft into the control tower there. These are some of the gadgets that we put in here and NCAA seems to be in love with us.

So far, on the average what is the annual passenger traffic into this airport?

It varies, you know we started in 2009 and there was a period that the Calabar Airport was totally closed and then, most of the traffic moved to this airport. At present, we are beyond 500, 000 passengers now annually. Also, we do operate some international flights for pilgrimage, we’ve been doing that consistently for the past three years for the state and some of the neighbouring states, but we are moving closer towards a million annually, but we are far beyond 500, 000.

How far have you gone with night operations at this airport?

We do night operations at this airport. Incidentally, not too long ago, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Engr. Nnamdi Nwankwo was here and gave us 24 hours operations, which was what we wanted in the first instance because if you have an MRO, any handicap aircraft can come in at any point in time. So, we were initially restricted to 9pm operations because Calabar Airport operates only up to 9pm and we were regarded as an alternate airport, but now, our status has gone up. So, we can now operate 24-hour operations.

So far, how many of technical personnel have been trained by the state government for this airport?

As far as 2008, we trained people in Air Traffic Control (ATC), but because of the existing laws, they were not licensed and you know in an airport you want to operate continuously, the ATC must be in good numbers. Then, we were having that handicap and NAMA sent a few people on Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) basis because they are the service provider, but we have our own people that we trained, who were not licensed then for them to take responsibilities because of an existing 1964 law, but that has changed now. When the MD NAMA came, he took over the people that we have trained and put them now to help Nigeria and just gave us enough so that we can operate our airport to run for 24-hour.

How much have you expended on training of personnel on this project?

First and foremost, we were always crying that you need to train people; accident and aviation don’t like to go on the same direction, if there is an accident in aviation, it becomes a global issue, but we don’t want that. So, training is very important. That is why when there is an accident and the panel wants to probe you, they will first of all ask if you were assigned the duty and if the response is positive, they will ask you if you have the skills, which means your initial and refresher trainings. If the answers to the two are positive, then, you go in for it, not your boss or your director. That is the way the industry is programmed. In fact, the best equipment in your aircraft needs a well-trained crew. We say we need new aircraft, but this is not what will solve the problem. What will solve the problem is well-trained crew, once you have that; you can have a rest of mind.

The state has spent something in the neighbourhood of N2.5bn on training of manpower in different countries both in Africa, Europe and America. Aviation business is highly capital intensive, but it will pay you more in the future

How many people have been trained with these huge funds?

For now, no fewer than 471 technical personnel have been trained by the state in operations, engineering, ATC and so on and so forth. We will continue to train more people because the attitude of Akwa-Ibom is not just this airport, but rather we are looking at aviation as a place to invest. So, even if we train more than what we require here, we will send them out to help the industry. It’s part of the manpower development for the country.

We’ve found out that maybe because of its close correlation with technology, aviation will be the future and that is why Akwa Ibom has taken the lead. If you invest in that area, you are likely to reap a lot of dividends in the future.

So far, how much has been expended on the Akwa Ibom project by the government?

You can’t get that straight off from here, but I can only say we estimated $250m for the project then before we went into phase two. I won’t think we have exceeded that for now, but again, we’ve gotten to a stage now that investors would come in.

At the beginning, did you exercise any fear that this airport project might become an abandoned project in the state?

I was not discouraged because I have pursued this project with passion and that is because I have history behind me. When I was overseeing the affairs of this state, I knew very well that we needed an airport in this state. As a matter of fact, when the former president came, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida my request was for us to have an airport, which the Mr. President then accepted and the minister was Graham Douglas. The president did not just see at as a project for Akwa Ibom, but its proximity to Equatorial Guinea because as at then, we were having hostilities with South Africa and all that and if the military aircraft takes off then, they will finish all these economic belts. This is Port Harcourt with our petroleum and all that. So, it was evident that we needed an airport around here and we expanded that, we will also have commercial traffic coming in, which was after my heart, but eventually I left and it was abandoned by my successors.

However, the moment this came up again and I was asked to come, I put in the best that I can and I’ve been lucky because government has been very supportive. It’s not very easy to see a government putting up this much money especially when you can not feel it.

The political angle then was that passengers can now come from Lagos or elsewhere and land in here, they don’t understand what an MRO will do for you, but when I explained this to the governor, it was difficult, but that is where the money would come and the government has seen it and has consistently put money into it over and above any other project. So, I’m lucky that I have a supportive government and it has gotten to a position that it can no longer be abandoned. People have seen it and they like it.