Onyema said the airline experiences an average of five bird
strikes every month and loses aircraft engines to most of the incidents.
Speaking on Tuesday during a webinar on ‘Repositioning the
Aviation Sector for Revenue Generation and Growth: The Role of The Legislation,’
organised by Messrs Olisa Agbakoba Legal (OAL), he explained that in a
situation where an engine is damaged beyond repair during a bird strike
incident, the engine could cost about $2 million to $3 million, depending on
the aircraft type.
“Air Peace had 26 bird strikes between February and June
this year. In fact, on the average, we suffer about five bird strikes every
month. There was a day we had two bird strikes. It is not the duty of the
airlines to chase birds at the airports.
“If an engine is damaged in the process by the bird, that
engine depending on the type of aircraft, repair of the aircraft can cause you
between $2 million to $3 million. If it happened to a Boeing 777 aircraft for
instance and damaged its engine, it could cost you about $10 million.
“However, bird strike may not damage the engine in total; it
might damage some things that you need to change in the engine, but in all, the
most important thing to take away from bird strike is the fact that it grounds
your operations immediately because you are not certain if that aircraft is not
affected,” he explained.
According to him, airlines need engine expert to look at the
engine and by doing that, the aircraft is grounded and flight schedules are
disrupted.
Onyema said such bird strike incidents disrupt the
operations of the airline, stressing that it was not the duty of airlines to
chase birds at the airports.
Also speaking at the event, the Federal Government called on
Nigerian private investors to partner with the Ministry of Aviation and
Aerospace Development in order to grow the sector in the country.
Delivering a Goodwill Message on Tuesday at a Festus Keyamo,
the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, said that the Federal
Government was willing to partner investors to develop the sector.
Keyamo emphasised that for the sector to actualise its
agenda, the government wanted investors to leverage on the immense
opportunities in the sector to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and
Joint-Venture Partnerships (JVPs) with heads of international economic
organisations, presidents of transnational corporations and principals of
leading privately-owned enterprises.
Quoting the data provided by the National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS), Keyamo said that the aviation sector contributed about N117
billion, which is 4 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first
quarter of 2022, while it also supported about 200,000 jobs and pays about N8.5
billion Niara in tax annually.
Keyamo stressed that the government was committed to
upscaling the achievement by leveraging the renewed hope agenda of President
Bola Ahmed Tinubu.