Aviation specialists have expressed divergent views over the federal authorities’s resolution to placed on sale its two-decade-old Boeing 737‑700 Enterprise Jet (BBJ) bought by the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
LEADERSHIP experiences that the choice to promote the plane adopted the acquisition of Airbus A330 for the usage of President Bola Tinubu. The A330 was acquired final 12 months for $100m (over N150bn).
The previous presidential plane is claimed to be present process inspections at AMAC Aerospace, Basel, in response to public listings on Controller, a world plane gross sales platform.
The Presidency supply stated that with over 19 years in service, the BBJ has change into more and more costly to take care of and topic to security scrutiny, significantly after a mechanical incident throughout an official journey to Saudi Arabia in April 2024.
However, aviation specialists have disagreed over the sale of the plane as some described it as uneconomical, thereby criticising Boeing’s security data lately.
Others believed that the upkeep staff of the plane mismanaged the plane and was one of many causes for the sale.
Talking completely to LEADERSHIP, aviation safety knowledgeable, Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd), stated international locations and airways are dropping Boeing over security and price of upkeep.
In response to him, airways, even overseas carriers, are dropping Boeing for Embraer, which is cheaper to take care of and safer.
“I’m in assist of the Federal authorities. Airways are altering. I imply, plenty of airways are shopping for Embraer now. Not a lot of them are speaking about Boeing. The identical factor with overseas airways which are flying right here now.
“On the finish of the day, we might not be capable to have assist engineering services to take care of it. So, let no one elevate any drawback about that. They’re certain to alter into Airbus. There shouldn’t be any drawback with that.”
“The one drawback that’s there now could be going to be about price as a result of when individuals drop Boeing, it can have an effect on the upkeep price. The place are you going to cowl the upkeep prices? Are there individuals at Boeing nonetheless who’re going to do upkeep? Because the airways are altering to Airbus, the technical individuals, too, are altering to Airbus.”
Capt. Ojikutu, who’s a one-time Commandant, Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, queried why Boeing is changing its engine with Rolls-Royce and McDonald.
“I learn one thing about Boeing shopping for a McDonald’s engine or perhaps a Rolls-Royce engine from Europe. And it didn’t work with the framework of their airline. They’ve made engines earlier than however why don’t they proceed with their very own engines? What’s the enterprise that you’re going to achieve from going to Britain to purchase McDonald’s and Rolls-Royce? Have you ever examined these engines with the framework of the plane? So, the engineers in America round that point had been complaining about these engines. You perceive? So, the one factor is that they didn’t point out the engine title. It’s solely now that I’m listening to the engine title.
I say, you drop your Boeing engine, you’re shopping for a Rolls-Royce engine. You might be shopping for a McDonald’s engine. McDonald’s was one they used for the DC plane and all these DC plane had been constructed on the high. However, no matter occurred, they aren’t manufacturing the engine. People do not make the engine. They’re shopping for a British engine. Properly, I received’t criticise it for security causes,” he said.
Talking on security, Capt. Ojikutu stated, “There have been so many security experiences about Boeing in contrast with Airbus, all these are Boeing 737-800 MAX. Boeing 737-800 MAX and, like I instructed you, even their very own engineers in America are complaining. They’ve been complaining concerning the engine.”
“There have been so many accidents, greater than the Airbus within the final 7 years particularly the MAX plane and the 800 kind. There have been so a lot of them,” he said.
Additionally talking, the overall secretary of the Aviation Spherical Desk Initiative (ARTI), Olumide Ohunayo, stated the plane was somewhat too early to have all the problems that had been related to it.
He additionally warned that the federal government should make sure that there isn’t a repeat of what occurred to the Boeing 737 enterprise jet with the brand new Airbus plane purchased by the President.
Ohunayo queried the upkeep staff of the plane, saying the staff alongside the road managed the plane.
“The plane is 20 years previous, however then, we don’t use the 12 months alone to guage an plane’s efficiency. The airline did simply 4,000 hours of flying time and 1,800 landings. It’s not a schedule. It was a non-public jet for the presidency. So, it was not flying every day or had a lot of rotations, however I really feel what occurred was that there was one thing incorrect. Any person dropped the ball within the upkeep of that plane.”
“And in that, in dropping the ball, we discovered that the plane itself started to carry out within the least efficient mode. You possibly can think about that an plane that was put on the market solely final 12 months, cash was spent to retrofit the inside of the plane. So what has modified now? In the event you didn’t imagine within the plane, you wouldn’t have gone forward to repair the inside and improve it, and wouldn’t have promote it the subsequent 12 months.”
In response to Ohunayo, the plane can be rapidly purchased off the shelf by new purchasers, managed and put again into use.
“For me, the issue was not the plane, however the upkeep staff of that plane, who someplace alongside the road dropped the ball, couldn’t go alongside, couldn’t monitor or didn’t do the suitable factor within the upkeep of the plane’s engines and different electricals that was giving that plane challenge.
“Now, the identical plane has been put on the market in Switzerland. You’d be shocked at how rapidly that plane can be taken by new purchasers, managed and put again into use.
“We’re going forward to purchase one other plane, an even bigger plane. I don’t see how we have a tendency to cut back prices by shopping for an even bigger A330 in comparison with the 737 we are attempting to discard. But when we don’t put in an ideal upkeep regime and staff in place, we’d find yourself having the identical drawback that they’ve had with the 737.
“I believe that plane was somewhat too early to have all the problems that had been related to it. However then, as we put out there a brand new one which we purchased, we should make sure that we don’t have a repeat of what occurred to the 737 enterprise jet with the brand new plane purchased by the President,” Ohunayo said.
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