by Monday Ukoha
The aviation industry in Africa is poised for growth in continuation of the recovery witnessed in the industry. One major sector that will play a critical role in this growth is the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) services sector. Industry figures project that between 2024 and 2033 Africa’s MRO spend with be about 32.6Billion USD. Boeing projects also that between 2024 and 2043 an Africa MRO market size of USD85Billion. With the industry embracing more liberalization, the spend will only increase. The major challenge is what quantum of this figure will be retained on the continent.
Aircraft availability has always been a major challenge for airlines: the aircraft delivery delays and supply chain issues in the industry have only magnified its relevance especially from an African airline context. In 2023, Allan Kilavuka, CEO of Kenya Airways bemoaned the negative effect of maintenance delays on the airline’s operations. In November 2024, during the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) AGA in Cairo, the Group Chairman of EgyptAir, Engr. Yehia Zakaria noted that aircraft delivery delay was impacting the airline’s expansion. In Nigeria, many airlines complained about the late return of their aircraft from maintenance shops abroad. The impact has included: rolling back on certain routes, flight operations adjustments, schedule unreliability, and overall poor customer service. Many airlines, have had to resort to leasing of aircraft and companies like Zela Aviation have been forthcoming to bridge the gap.
Some of these aircraft unavailability issue would be resolved if there were sufficient aircraft maintenance organizations on the continent, both in size and maintenance capabilities.
Though there exist major repair centres in North Africa (EgyptAir Maintenance, Royal Air Maroc) in East Africa (Ethiopian Airlines MRO), Southern Africa (SAA Technical and others), with the exception of West Africa were there are no big MROs, many of the MROs on the continent are restricted in size and scope of services they offer.
What Are Aircraft Manufacturers Doing?
There is generally an understanding by aircraft manufacturers that nearness to maintenance sites and timely spare parts support are crucial for the choice of aircraft acquisition. As a result, manufactures support MRO facilities and service centres as a way of encouraging operators to purchase their products. In Nigeria, Embraer recently commenced work with Air Peace on its MRO ambitions. In the same light, aircraft manufacturers are also actively increasing the capacity of African MROs to maintain their products types. In one of such, the regional aircraft manufacturer, ATR is partnering with Ethiopian Airlines MRO to build capacity for ATR aircraft maintenance on the continent.
ATR says the partnership which will enable “enhanced support to local operators” would “cover the development of Ethiopian MRO’s maintenance capabilities for the ATR aircraft types and the establishment of a local spares stock to reduce response time for ATR operators in the region.” ATR’s CEO Nathalie Tarnaud spoke to the need of African airlines noting: “ATR operators will benefit from an improved quality of service, lower maintenance cost, reduced downtimes and lower emissions through the support of an experienced partner closer to their needs.” Downtimes for AOG in Africa is provocatively time-consuming.
Equally, Airbus says its “supply chain in Africa represents more than 100 direct or indirect suppliers for products and services that range from design engineering, manufacturing of aero-structures and components to composites.” Airbus says it operates sites in both Morocco and Tunisia. In Southern Africa, Airbus says South Africa’s aerospace industry “is a major supplier of parts, components and sub-assemblies that are incorporated across the Airbus product range.”
Boeing company has also not been left out. In August 2024 it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Nigeria on aircraft acquisition and MRO development.
These efforts signal the relative understanding by manufacturers to leverage MRO collaboration to grow their market shares on the continent.
Eyes On The Future
More Investments in MRO capabilities in Africa will reduce maintenance costs and by extension cost of flying which in turn will lead to more travelers flying within the continent. With the implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), more routes and frequencies mean more flights and more maintenance requirements. No doubt Africa needs more bigger MROs with more maintenance capabilities which is where more effort is required from the aircraft manufacturers. Many airlines are developing internal maintenance capabilities and the aircraft manufacturers may wish to collaborate more with those airlines. Recent technological trends and innovations including predictive maintenance perforce demand more investments which more often than not are beyond the capacity of the nascent African MROs. Long and short, more partnerships are required with aircraft manufacturers to build the critical mass of maintenance capacity required to support the projected growth in Africa air transport.
The existing large MROs in Africa may form the fulcrum of a consolidated MRO establishment with investments from the aircraft manufactures to increase their capacity for third party maintenance work as well as expand the scope of their maintenance capabilities.
Manpower Training and Capacity
Development is needed within the continent and the aircraft manufacturers have a huge role to play here. Boeing in its 2024 global market forecast projects that Africa will need 25000 technicians between 2024 to 2043. Skills shortage in Africa had preexisted the current state attributed to COVID 19.
Therefore, the requirement for a pool of young talents from Africa to work as technical, maintenance etc to scale up MRO work in Africa is very present. At the 2024 MRO Africa in Addis Ababa, African Airlines Association’s Secretary General, Abderahmane Berthe said: “The two critical challenges for MRO activities growth to be addressed are: The Supply Chain challenge and, the Labor shortage challenge.” Berthe says “To operate more aircraft, we need to develop human resources”. Aircraft manufacturers will have to partner with governments and institutes in Africa to resolve this challenge. Enhancing of training capacity may also be build into negotiations for aircraft acquisitions.
Forex Challenges
In many countries in Africa have tight foreign exchange liquidity challenges which are already making it difficult for operators to either take their aircraft out for maintenance or returning those with completed maintenance abroad to the fleet. With more collaboration and increased local capacity, the need for forex will be further reduced ensuring the economic sustainability of many African carriers, especially the small carriers.
Finally, improving MRO capacity in Africa is a win-win for airlines, MRO services providers and aircraft manufacturers in Africa. The anticipated growth of aviation in Africa will place more demands on existing MRO facilities in Africa. The patronage for the MRO facilities in Africa is assured but the huge investment outlay is a disincentive. Furthermore, more human capacity will be required for any expansion of MRO capacity, requiring intentional efforts aimed not only at providing training opportunities but creating the environment for professionals to thrive. The collaboration of aircraft manufacturers to achieve these objectives are critical. Many of these opportunities exist only as MOUs, the time has come to take critical actions for the future of MRO services in Africa, and the aircraft manufacturers hold some of the aces.