SAHCO to handle BA cargo, invests in equipment

The Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) Plc says it will start cargo handling of the British mega carrier, British Airways from August 11, 2020. SAHCO haven taken over passenger handling of the airline.

Mr. Basil Agboarumi, the Managing Director of SAHCO stated this in an interview with correspondents at the company’s corporate headquarters at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos.

According to Agboarumi, since the company was acquired by Sifax Groups of Companies in 2009, the new management had injected billions of naira in equipment acquisition, construction of warehouse, training and retraining of its 1, 500 staff in Nigeria and abroad.

In the past five years, SAHCO had attracted major international carriers like Ethiopian Airlines, Air France-KLM, Virgin Atlantic, Etihad Airways, United Airlines (suspended operations into Nigeria in 2016) and lately British Airways to its fold.

He said: “Since SIFAX came on board, it has given new lease of life to SAHCO. The new buyer discovered that SAHCO was very deficient in state-of-the-equipment. The company had to inject totally new and more modern equipment to SAHCO. I have been in the industry for some time and I have to tell you, I have never seen that courage of injection of new equipment in my entire life in the industry.

“For the first time, airlines developed confidence in SAHCO. Today, SAHCO has one of the best cargo facilities in this part of the world. I can tell you we are the best in West Africa and one of the best in entire Africa. When airlines test our services and see that they are good, then, they will be willing to do business with us.

“That was how we got Etihad Airways, United Airlines from the United States, before it closed shop in Nigeria in 2016. Also, we had airlines like DHL moving to us, Air France/KLM came to test our services and of course, when these international airlines do, they give testimony of our services to others.”

Speaking on the expansion of its contract with British Airways, Agboarumi explained that by August 11, 2020, SAHCO would also commence the cargo handling of the airline across the country.

“We were just here in this office when the management of British Airways walked in here and scheduled a meeting with us. The airline was surprised at the quality of our equipment and certification and training.

“The airline was even surprised that we undersell ourselves by what we have on ground and that was how the process started. The rest is history. We handled their first flight on May 8, 2020. We will commence their cargo handling from August 11, 2020,” he said.

Besides, Agboarumi debunked the allegation in some quarters that the ground handling company deliberately lowers its charges in order to attract more clients, even though, he lamented that ground handling charges in Nigeria was the lowest in the world.

He declared that no airline would seek to patronise a company because of reduced charges without considering training of personnel, certification and topnotch equipment owned by such organisation, saying that SAHCO was well-prepared for healthy competition.

“But, I don’t think there is any airline that will want to dump service for the things you have stated. If you know the cost of an aircraft, no airline operator will want to allow untrained staff to get closer to its aircraft. The airlines are not penny wise pound foolish.

“If they say we hit below the belt, it now depends on the rules that we are playing by that will determine if we are hitting below the belt. History is also a very good teacher. If we are accused of hitting below the belt, we can also ask other ground handlers to tell us how they got to where they were before,” he said.

Agboarumi however sought financial assistance from the government to cushion the effect of Covid-19 pandemic on ground handlers, especially in the area of payment of salaries for workers from March till September, foreign exchange rate and waivers for importation of equipment.