• Air Peace to begin Lagos MRO facility construction in September

• Embraer partnership aims to reduce offshore maintenance reliance

• Nigeria spends $2.5B yearly on foreign aircraft maintenance
  

Nigeria's private airline Air Peace announced it will begin construction on a new maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility in Lagos this September. The project, a partnership with Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, is expected to take 12 to 15 months to complete, according to local media reports attributed to the airline's management.

Air Peace Chairman Allen Onyema made the announcement upon his return from Brazil, where he accompanied President Bola Tinubu on an official visit. The trip included the signing of a direct air services agreement between the two nations. "By September 17, we are going to inaugurate the commencement of construction of our new MRO, and Embraer will operate maintenance for Embraer jets,” Onyema stated.

This new infrastructure could help reduce African airlines' dependence on foreign maintenance centers, a major issue that results in significant additional costs from aircraft ferrying and hangar rentals. According to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the country spends over $2.5 billion annually on offshore maintenance for its fleet, which is one of the largest on the continent.

Currently, only a few African carriers, such as Ethiopian Airlines, South African Airways, Egyptair, and Royal Air Maroc, operate their own large-scale MRO centers.

This is not the first time such a project has been proposed in Nigeria. Several other MRO initiatives, announced by the federal government, private airlines, and investment groups including XEJet, United Nigeria, and Ibom Air, have struggled to get off the ground.

Henoc Dossa