Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) Plc recently at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos commissioned Cool Dollies which is the first of its kind in West Africa amongst other multi-million naira Ground Support Equipment (GSE) to further augment its services to its clients.
The Ground Support equipment unveiled by SAHCO include Cool dollies, Pallet dollies, Pushbacks, Air Conditioning Units (ACUs), water and toilet bowers. The three Cool Dollies which can be described as Mobile Cold rooms were manufactured by Bombelli a reknowned G.S.E. manufacturer from Italy, has the capacity of taking a pallet or two AKE container load of temperature sensitive shipment from the aircraft to the cold rooms or freezers in the warehouse.
Furthermore, the Cool dollies are equipped with an automatic electric powered engine that is environmentally friendly, and are fitted with data loggers to catalogue the pressure and temperature level of the compartment to protect its contents.
Also at the event, two 45 tonnes Push Backs were commissioned. Manufactured by Goldhofer, a German G.S.E manufacturer, the Push Backs which are equipped with a tier 4 engine have the capacity of pushing back all wide body aircrafts except an A380 aircraft.
Speaking at the unveiling, Mr. Basil Agboarumi, the Managing Director/CEO, SAHCO, said that the new equipment would be added to its arrays of facilities at the airport, explaining that SAHCO believed in continuous enhancement of facilities and would continue to invest in modern equipment in a bid to satisfy its clients, especially the airlines who he described as very important segment of its business.
Agboarumi who lauded the Board of Directors of SAHCO for giving its approval for the purchase of the equipment appealed to the Federal Government to also grant the Ground Handling companies customs duty waivers on acquisition of equipment.
He said: “SAHCO is doing this because we believe in adding values to the environment we operate in. Despite the current economic challenge in Nigeria, we are doing this at this time. These cool dollies are the first of its type in Nigeria. It can be used for the movement of perishable cargo from cold rooms to airlines and vice versa.
Agboarumi noted that the ACUs, Water and toilet browsers were fabricated by the engineers here in Nigeria. These according to him was done to help reduce the search for foreign exchange, which is always hard to come by.
He also noted that the equipment were manufactured in Europe costs the company more as they need to pay for shipping and clearing of the equipment at our seaports.
Also speaking at the occasion, Engr. Toyin Oriowo, the Assistant General Manager, Engineering and Maintenance, SAHCO, said that all the equipment acquired were carbon emission complaint and stated that the spare parts of the equipment were readily available in the market.
He emphasized that the three Toilet bowsers and two Water bowsers has the capacity of servicing wide body aircrafts.
