The Nigeria Aviation Handling Company, NAHCOAviance plc, has acquired and installed a state-of-the-art set of equipment for effective service delivery to help it meet patrons’ expectations in the industry.
Group managing director, NAHCOAviance, Olatokunbo Fagbemi, states that the feat, part of the company’s five-year transformational plan, is to further position the brand as one of the leading aviation handling firms in Africa.
Fagbemi, who spoke at a pre-annual general meeting forum in Kano on Thursday, says the aviation handling firm is set to use the development to sustain its high level of service delivery across both domestic and international airports in Nigeria and indirectly boost its revenue.
Some of the equipment are Passengers’ steps, which can be used by wide and narrow-bodied Aircrafts to convey passengers or engineers; high loaders, which are used to offload containers from the aircraft; Ground power units used to power aircrafts during flight planning; Push backs; air condition units, forklifts, and tractors among others.
“New investments in Ground support equipment (GSEs) will help reduce operations cost, as infrastructure failure at the airport, and aging equipment lead to increased maintenance cost. With the injection of new ground support equipment and ongoing improvement of airport facilities, will help to manage operating cost down, and increase profitability to the delight of our shareholders,” she explains.
“We are deliberate and focused on improving and turning around the company. We will focus majorly on strategic initiatives that will deliver operational efficiency and impact the bottom-line.”
She adds that the company would in the immediate period support its growth with long-term loans, and may consider accessing the capital market to raise long-term funds to support its long-term growth.
She says: “One of the first things that happened when I came is that since logistics is not just about the air, it is also about land and sea, our focus now is: how do we diversify our business to begin to look at the other modes of transportation?”
Speaking on the development, the chief operating officer, NAHCO Aviance, Herbert Odika, lauded the effort of the new management of the company saying he was optimistic that the new set of equipment would aid service delivery and help staff turnaround aircraft within the record time across domestic and the international airports in Nigeria.
According to Odika, “Aviation has changed in terms of service delivery as we work with Service Level Agreement, which means NAHCO as a service provider to the airlines would have to meet tight deadlines or be penalised. Our target is to be a leader in the continent’s aviation handling business and that is where we belong. We have highly trained maintenance team on ground to ensure the new sets of equipment are adequately maintained.”
According to him, NAHCOAviance is well-positioned to take advantage of the positive growth potential in the aviation industry in Africa and Nigeria, and will continue to invest in various businesses to expand and diversify revenue base and deliver improved returns to shareholders.
Odika further states that the management is mindful of the challenges in the operating environment such as liberalisation of the Nigerian market, increased competition, pricing pressures, safety & security, and business model obsolescence, and has put enough measures in its growth plan to mitigate possible risks to ensure stable growth in the years ahead.
