Nigerian real-tors hone skills for aircraft valuation.

Aviation Nigeria

Increasing private jet ownership in the country has presented members of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers an opportunity to show their skills in the complex area of aircraft valuation.

To hone the skills of members, the Faculty of Plant and Machinery Valuation, NIESV, brought an expert in international aviation valuation, Mr. Leslie H. Miles, to Lagos on Wednesday and Thursday to teach them the current trends in that line of business.

Miles is a senior member of the American Society of Appraisers and is accredited as a plant, machinery and equipment appraiser with specialty in appraisal review and management with aircraft appraisal as an additional technical valuation discipline.

In a presentation at the ‘International Seminar on Plant and Machinery Valuation: Focus on aircraft, oil and gas installations,’ Miles said there were enormous opportunities for NIESV members to handle the valuation of aircraft assets in a standardized manner since aviation was a global business.

To do this successfully, however, he said they must understand the rudiments of the aircraft like type, year of manufacture, engine type, manufacturer, capacity and operations.

Using himself as an example, Miles said apart from being a certified appraiser or valuer, he was a trained pilot with many years’ experience of flying.

He urged members of the institution to update their knowledge and adopt a standardized method of carrying out aircraft valuation in line with global best practices.

The Chairman of the faculty, Mr. Paul Osaji, said following the crash of a Dana Air’s plane in Lagos on June 3, 2012, a lot of focus had been on doing things properly in the aviation sector through acquisition of new aircraft.

He said members of the institution needed to know the value of an aircraft and other details like the cost of insurance before they could successfully ascribe a value to it.

Osaji said, “In recent times, more Nigerians have been acquiring private aircraft. We have about 200 of such private jets in the country at the moment with over N1.3trillion invested in their acquisition.

“We need to guide the investor on the value of the aircraft. They need to know how much to pay for one, how much to insure it for and the cost at which they can sell if the need arises. Loss adjusters need to know the value of the aircraft and the insurance before they can pay claims in cases of accidents.”

The same knowledge, he said, would apply to the valuation of commercial passenger and cargo planes.

Osaji said by their training, NIESV members were the only licensed set of professionals in the country allowed to put value on different items, whether landed property or plants and machinery.

To do this, he said they did not have to be pilots or aeronautical engineers, but only needed to add the knowledge of how the aircraft operated to their body of knowledge on general valuation.

Delta Air Lines to buy 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Sky Watch Nigeria.

Delta Air Lines Incorporated is nearing a deal to buy a 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited from Singapore Airlines Limited and may pay less than $500m for it, three people familiar with the matter said.

The price range is $300m to $500m and an agreement may be announced this week, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Singapore Airlines paid £600m for the Virgin Atlantic stake in 1999, or about $966m now.

Bloomberg News reported that Delta and Virgin Atlantic may seek a joint venture on trans-Atlantic routes as part of the arrangement, two of the people said.

Virgin Atlantic’s base at London Heathrow airport is a gateway for flights across the North Atlantic, the world’s most lucrative market for premium passengers.

“Heathrow access, that’s what Delta finds attractive here,” said Savanthi Syth, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates Incorporated in St. Petersburg, Florida, who rates Atlanta- based Delta outperform.

“This is not necessarily a carrier that they expect to make a big return on investment on. There’s a reason Singapore is getting out.”

Virgin Atlantic, founded and majority-owned by United Kingdom billionaire Richard Branson, posted a pretax loss of $129m for the year ended in February, and has delayed adding planes.

Representatives of Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Airlines and Delta declined to comment about the sale process.

Delta, Air France-KLM and their SkyTeam partners are the smallest alliance group at Heathrow, with about 5 percent of takeoff and landing slots. Oneworld, led by British Airways and AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, dominates with almost half of all service, followed by United Continental Holdings Inc. and its Star Alliance partners with about a quarter of slots.

FAAN to embark on Professional Staff assessment.

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The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)has embarked on 'professional' assessment of the staff of the Authority, to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills that would ensure the success of the transformation agenda in the aviation industry.

According to the General Manager, Corporate Communications of FAAN, Mr Yakubu Dati,the assessment exercise entails a rigorous process that would enable staff key into the transformation agenda and identify their expected roles in the aviation master plan.

He pointed out that the Federal government in realization of the fact that the massive improvement in the infrastructure at the airports without corresponding added value in human resources, has made it imperative for staff to re-orientate for the success of the aviation road map.

Dati said that FAAN remained committed to fulfilling its mission to be among the best airport groups in the world.

NAMA completes first phase of solar power installations.

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The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) says it has completed the first phase of installation of solar power units to eliminate challenges associated with erratic power supply to navigational aids in parts of the country.

A statement in Lagos on Saturday, signed by Supo Atobatele, the agency’s General Manager, Public Affairs, quotes Nnamdi Udoh, the Managing Director, as saying that the project would cover six locations.

He said that the project awarded at a cost of N218 million would cover Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Bida in Niger.

Udoh in the statement said: “this is another milestone in saving money and diversifying our power source to solar energy.

“It is a project that has been ongoing and is now fully completed and we are now using it, saving us the huge amount we use to spend on diesel to power generators and the downtime we use to experience, due to power failure.’’

He said that the agency would continue to explore other areas to deploy the use of the technology to enhance its operational efficiency.

“The solar power is solely for navigation/landing aids for now in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Bida and Enugu where we have major issues regarding constant power supply to the runways and air field lighting,’’ he said.

Udoh also added that power supply to the airfield and runways in the airports were erratic and that the agency used to keep them alight by running generators on 24-hour basis. The managing director said that the cost of the project also include the training of NAMA staff in the handling of the installations.

He assured that the next phase of the project cover other airports and that it was expected to begin before the end of next month January.

A growing need for Aviation manpower to meet Aviation infrastructure.

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There are growing concerns on the dwindling number of professionals in the aviation industry. With the consistent developments that have continuously shaped the face of the aviation sector, questions are being raised regarding the availability of sufficient manpower to handle such infrastructural challenges. 

Speaking in a conference titled ''Local Content Development in the Aerospace  and Air Transport Industry in Nigeria'', during the organized by the International Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Aeronautical Division of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Chairman of the event  Group Captain John Obakpolor(rtd) pointed out that If urgent steps are not taken to reverse the trends through the training of young cadets to take over from the ageing professionals, the industry may one day found out that it has no alternative that to resort to hiring foreigners.

Group Captain Obakpolor advised that in order to address the trend, the Federal Government and the Ministry of Aviation must come up with an all encompassing analytical policy on the training of young professionals in all the technical fields so as to enhance manpower development and production.

In an address read by the Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Engineer Bola Bido, on behalf of the Managing Director of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency(NAMA), Engineer Nnamdi Udoh, The MD noted that the importance of aviation to the economic drive of the nation could not be over looked bearing in mind that the industry accounted for the provision of 7million jobs in Africa and generated over $64billion annually.

Aeronautical engineers in Nigeria are' critically' endangered group of professionals in the aviation industry. The Managing Director added. Speaking on the same issue, Engineer Obadofin, the Chief Consultant of Aeroconsult recomended that it was time for the Ministry of Aviation to become more pro-active in the direction of technical staff training and ensuring the development of local content-especially skilled manpower.