The Presidential Air Fleet (PAF) said its budgetary allocation in the past years is insufficient to fund the operations fleet.
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| Nigerian Air Force |
The Commander of the fleet, AVM Abubakar Abdullahi told members of the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence during an oversight visit in Abuja.
Represented by Fleet Operations Officer, Mr. Ahmed Dari, Abdulahi said that the quality of aircraft maintenance conducted is directly proportional to flight safety and it is critical to the importance of safe operations in the fleet.
“It is important for this committee to note that for successive years, the fleet has been grossly underfunded which has made it difficult to operate. From the fleet records, debts from preceding years are usually carried over to the following year and this has become the tradition.
“Permit me to also state that most of these debts are owned by service providers overseas. Considering that over 85 percent of the fleet expenditure is forex, the actual budget figure in dollars is further diminished.
“It is important to note that the average age of the presidential air fleet aircraft is 11 years and in aviation, maintenance increases proportionately with the age of the aircraft.
“Based on the fleet experience, the cost of maintaining each aircraft ranges between 1.5 million dollars to 4.5 million dollars depending on the level of maintenance.
“Additionally, the year 2023 is an election year which translates to more missions and space requests for the aircraft due to increased usage,” he said.PMNews
