IRS airlines said that its decision to operate Fokker 28 aircraft in its fleet, was due to its low maintenance cost, manageability and easy for its crew to fly compared to other aircraft.

The choice of the airline was made known to journalists by the General Manger of IRS, Mr Yemi Dada, while speaking at an interactive session between the airline and Regional Sales Manager Africa, Fokker Services, Bart Geurten and Regional Sales Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Heino Van Laan.

Dada, who said that IRS is the only airline in the country using Fokker aircraft, added that the only organisation that operated Fokker planes was the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL).

He added that since the airline began operating the Fokker aircraft, there has not been any complaint, adding that the qualities of the product necessitated the interaction with the representatives of the plane manufacturers.

According to him," Since we started operating the Fokker airplanes we have not had or we have not created an avenue where the press can help us project to the general public the good qualities of these products. We have had people make comment about this airplane, about whether there is still support for it, whether the aging of the parts and so on".

He said that the airline decided to dump the Boeing 727 aircraft in its fleet because of the ban by the Federal Government through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) that airlines must not use aircraft that is beyond 21 year old in the Nigerian airspace.

Other challenges that the airline faced while operating B727, which made the IRS management to look inward include the amount of fuel consumption by Boeing, charges paid for parking and landing based on the aircraft weight and others.

"When we started, we started with a fleet of 727. We acquired initially five 727. We started operating two of them before the 21-year-old ban came in place. And that precluded us from being able to register three other ones that we had acquired. We had to find other ways to dispose of them. The two that we are operating here we quickly found out that for the size of the market, for the quantum of fuel that they burn, we are paying so much on the weight, we pay for landing, parking based on weight. And the passenger yield per hour would not give you what you want from the 727. So we looked at ourselves and said the best thing to do is to right size it"

He disclosed that it was in the process of looking inward that the airline saw alternative in Fokker 28 and decided to experiment with it , adding that since the organisation has been operating the F28,,there has never be any problem.

"In trying to look at alternatives we came across the Fokker 28, Mac 4000. It was being operated in South Africa. And we decided that we should experiment with one to find out how it would compete in the Nigerian market. And very quickly it endeared itself to us. It was very easy for our crew to fly, manageability was wonderful, the landings you get from the F28, I think is designed to give you a very comfortable landing."

He continued, "We were getting very high load factor on it and we were able to do very quick turnaround. We didn't require a lot of ground equipment to support it. It was a beautiful departure from what we had on the Boeing 727. And so we grew the fleet of the F28 to four."

On what influenced the airlines decision in the choice of aircraft, he said that when the management saw that its capacity was growing, coupled with the gains of F28, the management he said had no choice than to fully embrace Fokker products.

According to Dada, "Going forward we found out that as our patronage continue to increase, we needed to also increase the capacity of what we had and of course we have enjoyed the F28, so naturally we turned to another Fokker product which is the F100. It gives us from moving from the F28 to F100, we continue to get benefits, such as a lot of savings on fuel, the ease with which the crew will fly the airplane. It was just that, which influences our decision."

He argued that compared to other air planes, in terms of technology, the F28 despite the fact that it was manufactured many years ago to some extent is more advanced compared to Embraer, adding that that accounts for why the airline has five F100 in its fleet. "We are actually concentrating on acquiring more F100. And that is why we have five F100 on our fleet today. And we are looking to build this up to a fleet of 10. So that we can reach all our domestic missions and regional missions" Dada said.

On their part, the Regional Sales Manager Africa, Fokker Services, Bart Geurten and Regional Sales Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Heino Van Laan, said the aircraft manufacturing company will continue to support the airline in its efforts to increase its fleet with Fokker aircraft.