Allen Onyema, Chairman of Air Peace, has expressed concern over a series of 26 bird strike incidents that the airline endured from February to June 2023.
According to businessday.ng, 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.
