The Nigeria Aviation Handling Company Plc says it has acquired N2.5bn set of equipment for passenger facilitation and other aspects of its business.

The Group Managing Director, NAHCO Aviance, Mrs Olatokunbo Fagbemi, who made this known on Thursday, said it was part of the company’s five-year transformational plan to boost growth in the aviation industry.

Fagbemi, who spoke at a pre-annual general meeting forum in Kano, was quoted to have said the firm would use the equipment to sustain high-level service delivery across domestic and international airports in the country.

According to the GMD, the equipment includes passenger boarding stairs for wide and narrow-bodied aircraft, high loaders, ground power units, push backs, air condition units, forklifts, and tractors among others.

She said, “This phase of new investments in ground support equipment worth over N2.5bn is our first step; more are coming. It will help reduce operation costs as infrastructure failure at the airport and aging equipment lead to increased maintenance costs.

The Chief Operating Officer, NAHCO Aviance, Mr Herbert Odika, lauded the efforts of the new management of the company, adding that he was optimistic that the new set of equipment would aid service delivery and help staff turnaround within record time across domestic and the international airports in the country.

He said, “Aviation has changed in terms of service delivery as we work with service level agreement, which means NAHCO as a service provider to the airlines would have to meet tight deadlines or be penalised.

“Our target is to be a leader on the continent’s aviation handling business and that is where we belong. We have highly trained maintenance team on the ground to ensure the new sets of equipment are adequately maintained.”