SAHCO beefs up operation with new ground handling equipment

BY: Sade Williams/Business a.m.

Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) has beefed up its ground handling operation with the acquisition of a new set of ultra-modern equipment to enhance its service delivery.

The new fleet of equipment acquired includes ten passenger step units manufactured by Mallaghan, a renowned aviation industry manufacturer and supplier of highly rated ground support equipment.

The passenger step units have the capacity to provide passenger access to a wide range of aircraft including, B747, B777, B767, A340, A380, A320, among others.

Also, the equipment is fitted with proximity sensors which are devices that shut down the equipment engines when they are positioned too close to the aircraft to prevent aircraft damage. Another acquired equipment in the new fleet is an air starter unit (ASU), which is used to supply necessary quantities of air at a specified pressure to aircrafts while it is parked.

The A.S.U was acquired from Guinault in France and has an eco-friendly engine, while the chassis is made from steel to reduce the rate of corrosion or wear. It also has a safety device attached to the fuel gauge to enable it to shut down when the fuel is less than 30 litres to prevent engine damage due to fuel shortage.

Furthermore, two units of Armarrel High Loader LAM 7000 were also part of the latest acquired fleet of equipment for ground support.

The LAM 7000 has the capacity of loading about 7,000kg of pallets or containers at a time. This equipment is also furnished with proximity sensors and were procured from Airmarrel, a G.S.E producing giant from France. It is also furnished with electrical and hand emergency pumps which can be used during emergency procedures.

In a related development, the SAHCO engineering team has produced 20 baggage carts from locally sourced materials.

The carts, which have already been dispatched to SAHCO’s Abuja station, were produced according to European standards with huge improvements on their European counterparts.

The carts were produced to be able to carry more baggage, rugged side guides with heavy duty hinges to customise their functionality to suit Nigerian baggage peculiarities.

Also, they can manoeuvre at 90 degrees unlike their European counterparts. The carts were produced locally thereby saving SAHCO a lot of foreign exchange.

Basil Agboarumi, managing director and chief executive officer of SAHCO, said the decision to constantly invest in modern ground handling equipment is because the company is always pursuing excellent services for clients.

“As always, we are an aviation ground handling provider and what we stand for and want to be known for is not just to provide services, but to provide excellent ground handling services and we have an understanding as an organisation that for us to be able to provide that kind of service, we must have staff that are well trained in what they do and have the right equipment to work with.”

SAHCO is a publicly listed aviation ground handling service provider that is present in all the commercially operated airports in Nigeria, namely Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Owerri, Calabar, Ilorin, Enugu, Maiduguri, Gombe, Ibadan, Jos, Asaba, Benin, Bauchi, Uyo, Sokoto, Kaduna, Yola, Bayelsa, Warri and Anambra.