From Suleiman Amagbor, in Lagos
Leading West Africa ground handling giant, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc (nahcoaviance), has gotten the nod of European giant airline Lufthansa and Royal Air Maroc of Morocco to extend the service to the duo for another five years period.
Report indicates that the Nigerian firm emerged the preferred ground handling on the back of exceptional service delivery by the company.
Our correspondent gathered that while the contract with Lufthansa runs from the first of May, 2024, through April 30, 2029, that of Royal Air Maroc is a comprehensive one for its Lagos and Abuja destinations.
According to documents seen by our correspondent, The Royal Air Maroc Lagos operations will run for five years from May 01, 2024, through April 30, 2029 that of the Abuja contract, a new location for the airline, will also run a similar time frame.
Speaking on the deal, Group Executive Director, Commercial and Business Development, NAHCO Plc, Prince Saheed Lasisi, said the new contracts were coming at a time when NAHCO is massively increasing its capacity with the recent purchase of new Ground Support Equipment.
“Lufthansa and Royal Air Maroc have made the right decision in staying with NAHCO, evidently the largest handling provider in the country. We just took delivery of billions of naira worth of equipment which would be deployed to service these valued partners. It is a thrilling development,” Prince Lasisi told journalists in Lagos.
On his part, the Group Managing Director/CEO, NAHCO Plc, Mr. Indranil Gupta, expressed his delight with the new contracts affirming that it is great partnerships at work.
The NAHCO CEO pointed out that the company is doing a lot in the area of manpower development and equipment purchase in order to be able to give incomparable service.
Recently, the company announced the deployment of several equipment recently purchased to some of its stations.
The deployed equipment comprised several units of pushbacks, Ground Power Units, Aircraft Cooling Units, Aircraft Air Start Units, tractors, reach trucks,forklifts, cargo and baggage carts, and pallet dollies.
Nahco said the deployment would be the first in a series of massive equipment replacement embarked upon by the firm which has set for itself an ambitious target of excess GSE in two years.