African Aviation Summit MRO AFRICA, 14 June 2022 – AFRAA Secretary General Opening Remarks

African Aviation Summit MRO AFRICA, 14 June 2022, Johannesburg – South Africa
AFRAA Secretary General Opening Remarks

All projections highlight the increased number of aircraft to be operated on the African continent in the future.

The need to operate more aircraft to cope with the growing demand is an opportunity for MROs to develop their business.

The leading African MROs are in East, North, and Southern Africa. West and Central Africa do not have MROs performing heavy maintenance.

Maintenance accounts for a large part of airline costs. New maintenance models reducing costs are welcome by Airlines which are seeking for:

–        Shortest maintenance turnarounds,

–        Spare parts and components availability and access,

–        Engine performance monitoring to avoid unscheduled events,

–        Outsourcing line maintenance as an option for their network expansion.

African Airlines must cooperate with MROs, and OEMs to operate at optimum safety, reliability, and cost-effectiveness.

In the area of aircraft maintenance, AFRAA has recently initiated two critical projects:

• The Brown Condor Initiative aims to help our members generate revenue by selling African MRO capabilities and excess inventories of spare parts in the US Market. The project targets four MROs; Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, SAA Technical, and EgyptAir. Ethiopian Airlines and Egyptair have already signed the agreement.
• The spare parts pooling project aims to facilitate line maintenance by pooling spare parts at a station and preventing airlines from carrying some spare parts on board their commercial flights. AFRAA has already completed the pooling platform. We hope the 1^st spare parts pooling station will be here in Johannesburg for B737 NGs hosted by South African Airways.

In conclusion, the future growth of the African Air Transport market and the need for new aircraft are opportunities for African Airlines and MROs to cooperate better and take off for sustainable development of African Aviation.

Let us prepare for this exciting future and contribute to the African economic integration.