Scary ride on the bullet plane

As the Afriqiyah Airlines A320 limped over the sun-drenched beaches of Monastir on Tunisia’s central west coast, the first glimpse of the 2,950m Runway 25 at Monastir’s Habib Bourguiba Airport must have been a welcome sight.

Even more appealing was the large steel hangar belonging to French MRO specialist Sabena Technic, which would be responsible for getting the Libyan aircraft back to revenue service.

The A320 was riddled with bullet holes. It was the victim of being in the middle of the fierce battles in the Libyan revolution. Like others in the fleet it had been on the ground at Tripoli Airport for around six months and with pressurisation impossible, the aircraft was flown at low altitude with landing gear down for the one-hour flight from the Libyan capital to Monastir.

Chedly Damergi, general manager of Sabena Technic’s joint venture with Tunisia’s Nouvelair, watched with admiration as the pilots taxied the aircraft to the MRO hangar.

“It was not a flight that many would want to do,” he said. “The aircraft hadn’t moved and so they couldn’t trust putting up the gear in case it wouldn’t go down again.”

Sabena had begun working with Afriqiyah in 2010 providing C-checks on the aircraft at Monastir. The Sabena Technics MIR station was developed originally by Sogerma and independent Tunisian airline Nouvelair in 2000.

With the French company owning 51%, the initial aim was to provide MRO services for the airline with additional capacity being offered to third parties. By the time Sabena Technic took over the Sogerma business five years ago, the rapidly expanding Nouvelair was responsible for 70% of the hangar usage.

“We still fill with third-party work. Airlines such as Air Med, CAA airline from Congo, Iberian airlines and even the French president Sarkozy’s A319 have come here for work,” said Damergi.

But with the revolution in Tunisia cutting back Nouvelair’s operations by some 40%,  Sabena Technics saw little but gloom for 2011. The Libyan situation changed that.

“Afriqiyah had nine A320s. One was destroyed, but the others have come here for repair and for the C-checks that were due. It made a big difference to us. Although our figures were down for the year, they were not as bad as they could have been.”

The Monastir base operates at a significantly lower cost that its European counterparts. A committed and skilled workforce of 240 engineers has workshops available to repair and rebuild even composite parts.

“In Tunisia each technician on the aircraft must have his own licence – not like in Europe where one engineer can sign for all the work done,” said Damergi. “In addition we have 20 engineers with European licences to go to our line maintenance stations in places like Kuwait or Russia or other places that Sabena Technics need them.”

The Monastir facility recruits locally but often loses qualified staff to the Gulf operators. “It is frustrating, but we cannot compete on salaries. But while it is bad for us it is good for Tunisia,” Damergi said.

With the new airport at Enfidha now growing, Damergi believes Sabena should be expanding too. “There are great opportunities here. I would love to see us with two lines and the capability to take A330s,” he said.