PRIVATE jet owners in Nigeria spend at least $52.3m (N7.8bn) annually on maintenance and expatriate pilots, investigation by our correspondent has revealed. This is as a result of the owners’ failure to register the jets locally.
Going by the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s policy, Nigeria-registered pilots and engineers cannot fly or maintain foreign-registered aircraft.
According to the Chief Executive Officer, Airfirst Nigeria Limited, an aviation maintenance consultancy firm, Mr. Gbolahan Abatan, there are about 70 private jets in the country.
But our correspondent gathered that about 80 per cent of these private jets carried foreign registration, with most of them registered in South Africa, United States and some European countries.
This means that about 56 jets are being flown and maintained by expatriates.
According to industry experts, annual maintenance of a private jet costs an average of $550,000. This translates into about $30.8m for the estimated 56 foreign-registered aircraft.
An expatriate pilot also takes home an average of $8,000 monthly, according to experts. This means that Nigeria loses at least $21.5m annually to expatriate pilots.
These pilots are flown into the country every three weeks. Their return air tickets, as well as hotel and feeding costs, while in Nigeria, are borne by the owners of the private jets.
According to experts, 70 per cent of the foreign-registered private jets flying in Nigeria carry South Africa‘s registration; hence, a significant number of the jets are being flown and maintained by South Africans.
They, however, said minor maintenance, called A & B checks in aviation parlance, was mostly done in Nigeria by expatriates from the countries where the private jets are registered.
The President, National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, Mr. Isaac Balami, said it was unacceptable for Nigerian private jet owners to be spending such huge amount on expatriates when competent local pilots and engineers were jobless.
He said, ”Nigerian billionaires have refused to de-register their private jets from foreign countries. Are they powerful than the government? Our people are losing jobs everyday. We have people that can do the job, several local pilots and maintenance engineers. Even in Ghana, foreign private jets do not operate in the country for over two years without being de-registered. It does not happen.
”We have 100 per cent local capacity to this job. These are eight to 20-passenger jets. Even Aero, Arik, Air Nigeria and Dana do the minor regular maintenance of their aircraft within the country. We have hangars for that. But because these jets are on foreign registration, the expatriates come in to do the job here.”
He added, “If the Federal Government refuses to compel these billionaires to de-register the airplanes as is being done in other parts of the world, I doubt if we won‘t go the union way.”
Abatan claimed that most Nigerian pilots and engineers, having noted the trend, made efforts to obtain foreign licences and validation, especially from South Africa, but were ”tactically refused by the authorities in connivance with South African aviation firms, which are supposed to recommend them.”
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