Podcast: EnComm Aviation’s Jackton Obuola discusses BAE lawsuit

EnComm Aviation’s regional freighter operations came to an abrupt halt in September 2025, causing the carrier to write off more than $100 million after BAE Systems surrendered its ATP aircraft type certificate to the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority. EnComm had made multiple investments building its infrastructure, including heavy maintenance repairs for its ATP fleet, when it learned of BAE’s decision to discontinue its support, making it nearly impossible for the carrier to continue operating the type, EnComm Aviation Director Jackton Obuola says in this week’s episode of “Cargo Facts Connect.” “There were a lot of investments we were still making,” Obuola says. “For instance, we were in the process of overhauling landing gears, overhauling engines, returning to service a lot of aircraft, spending up to $15 million.” EnComm has filed a lawsuit in London seeking $250 million in punitive damages and claiming negligent misrepresentation and misstatement by BAE. The Kenyan startup was surprised by the decision after meeting with BAE and receiving commitments for continued support for its ATP fleet, Obuola says. EnComm was operating four ATP freighters and was preparing to enter service with the remaining nine ATP aircraft it had acquired from Sweden-based West Atlantic. BAE invited EnComm to the United Kingdom for a meeting when the startup reached out to the manufacturer in May 2024, Obuola says. Parts and suppliers for the ATP aircraft type were in attendance, including parts distributor Saywell International, component supplier Safran and propeller supplier PropTech. “Our BAE representative at the time said as long as there’s one BAE ATP aircraft in service, they will continue supporting it,” Obuola says. Even though EnComm has ceased operations, its legal pursuit of BAE is just beginning. Tune into this week’s episode of “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear Obuola discuss with Senior Associate Editor Robert Luke the events that grounded the regional carrier and the next steps it will take. A transcript is available below. This transcript has been generated by software and some transcription errors may remain. Robert Luke Hello and welcome to another episode of Cargo Facts Connect, the podcast of cargo facts and the newsletter of record for of the aircraft, freighter and cargo industries for over 40 years. Happy new year. I'm senior associate editor Robert Luke, and it's Friday the ninth of January, 2026. Joining me today is Jackton Obuola, director of Encomm Aviation, who discusses the pending legal matters between the Kenya-based startup carrier and BAE Systems. Robert Luke Hello, Jackton Ochieng Obuola. It's a pleasure to have you join us as a representative of Encomm Aviation based out of Nairobi, Kenya. Could you please enlighten our audience by telling us a little bit about your aviation experience and background? Jackton Obuola Yes, Robert, yes. So ENCOM is, is, is, is, is actually a company I founded about 20 years ago in Nairobi, Kenya in 2006. So initially ENCOM was was not actually involved in aviation, we're involved in in energy and sector and agriculture. Aviation is, is, is is a unit that we started off in 2018 with the acquisition of the first four ATP aircraft which we acquired from West Atlantic. So at the time we saw a gap in the. In the East African aviation market, particularly in the in the humanitarian and peacekeeping segment, especially given all the conflicts in the region, especially in Somalia, in in South Sudan, in Sudan, in Congo. We we saw quite a a big gap in in that segment. So that's what led to our decision to initially invest in in the medium sized cargo turboprops, especially because we could see that the dominant fleet at the time. Were the Fokker 50s and the Fokker 27s and and that fleet was we could see that it was aging and we could see that within five to to to seven years they would be going out of service and indeed just a month ago, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority has actually has actually ceased and and and registration of any new Fokker aircraft at at going forward so. No more folk aircraft are going to be registered in Kenya and you realise that most of the fleet serving the region, whether it's Congo, whether it's South Sudan, they they mostly registered operated from Kenya. So that that was the background and at the time we had a relationship already from our energy business with with the EKN, the Swedish Export Credit. So we approached them to initially finance the first four BAE aircraft ATP aircraft cargo Aircraft which we acquired from West Atlantic. So we we looked around and we we evaluated different you know options and platforms. So we we looked at the the Q400 which are way more expensive. We looked at the ATRS. ATRS are not very suited for for the rear for the for the for this region especially because you're operating in unpaved runaways, very dusty runaways. So we settled on the AT PS, which looked to be very suitable suitably from a design and perspective. And and even payload perspective, they're they're much better than Fokker 50s, just almost compatible with the with the the Bombardier Q400 dash shades. So, so, so that was the background and then. So we completed the fact that first acquisition and transaction in 2018 and then but given that it was a new type in East Africa, so we had to go through a whole process of setting up from scratch. So we had to train and type rate pilots, you know, engineers, everything we had to be because they were the first actually operator of the BAE ATP type in in in Africa, not just East Africa. So that whole process took almost a year. So the whole of 2019 was preparation and setting up and introducing the ATP to the to the East African and the Kenyan Civil Aviation Register. So we we had to train and the typrator and you know the the crew. And by February 2020, we were just getting ready to start the first flight. And you know, guess what happened? Robert Luke Pandemic. Jackton Obuola The COVID happened. So, so we actually they, I think, I remember the date. I think it was 7th, no February or something like that. We was about to start our first flight and then suddenly. There was a shutdown and at the time all our crew, all our, all our instructors were all coming from Europe, former West Atlantic, you know, pilots who were. And suddenly there was this travel issues and we suddenly couldn't trade, we couldn't, we couldn't do anything. So we actually had to stop the operation at that point. Robert Luke Understood. So I want to ask you a question specifically that you that you brought up here because we're seeing the emergence of a lot of activity whether it's Advantage Air or we're seeing Renegade Air which are you know also expanding their, you know, regional freighter fleets with the Dash 8 400 package. Particularly they're bringing in the ATRS, which you said were not ideally suitable. Is it because that Encomm's focus was just going to be on providing humanitarian support that required you to have aircraft capable of landing in those remote regions or areas that you serve that the ATP freighter was the ideal choice? And if that's the case, what was the initial strategy and hopes for the operation of the ATP freighter fleet? How long were you planning to operate those? Because those aircraft, although they seem to be ideally suited, were also, if not the same age as the types you were looking at, considering initially whether it's the Dash 8 or the ATR, but in some cases may have been a little older. Jackton Obuola Yes. So that's true. Yes, we will given the the, the, the, the age of the the aircraft we're acquiring, which most of them were between 90 and 95. And given the the, the, the support that we received initially from you know West Atlantic in terms of setting up, we also acquired a quite a significant stock of spare parts. I mean we're talking about something like 44 containers or so plus of of of of spare parts and and and after the pandemic actually we we that's I think sometime 2021 2022 was actually West Atlantic actually approached us and then and offered us the rest of their fleet because they had been acquired by Swift Air from Spain. So, so, so actually as we speak we we are sitting on a fleet of 13 ATPS of which 12 11 were cargo and and sorry of which 10 were cargo aircraft and and three were passenger aircraft. So we ended up acquiring the entire fleet of ATPs from West Atlantic, including the simulator as well, which was operated by on their behalf by CAE in Copenhagen, because obviously we had to initially train a lot of, integrate a lot of all the crew, all the engineers, all the, you know, the pilots. So it made sense for us to acquire the simulator as well and we're actually in the process of relocating the same to Nairobi as as before the the news with the the B happened. But from our own projections we we were foreseeing a life given the hours the ATPs were actually relatively low hours. Of at least 15 to 20 years of operation. Robert Luke OK. So take us, take us down this path of operations. How many of the 11 cargo variants were you able to actually get operational since you started actually flying and providing service through I believe Trans African Air? And before this situation unfolded with BAE. Jackton Obuola Yes. Exactly. So, so our first hiccup was of course the the COVID, the the pandemic, which unfortunately we're very lucky. We had been supported by the Export Credit, Swedish Export Credit and the Export Credit Guarantee Board of Sweden. They were very understanding. They really, you know, supported us right through the pandemic. They they held our hands. They allowed us to, you know, restructure the operation. So initially when we started operating through aerospace Consortium unfortunately the the the the the late the proprietor of aerospace was one of the the the victims of COVID. So and then we we we that's how we moved to South Africa. So we had to restart the whole certification process and reduction process of the ATPs again in 2022 once the pandemic restrictions were lifted. So we had to restart afresh because by then everything had expired the the type ratings for the pilots. The airworthiness we had had aircraft sitting on the ground for about between 20 from 2018 until 2022 and so so we had to renew all the airworthiness and and and we had to set up the whole you know maintenance AMO from scratch. So by February 2020, January, February 2023, we're actually ready to start. We started operations with the first two aircraft. So ATP is I'm sure you saw that in in Somalia and so we started slowly ramping up the operation and then by then we were also started the process of delivering the the additional 10 air 8 aircraft because by by this time we had already acquired by end of 23 we had already acquired the rest of the fleet. So we we started progressively delivering them from Sweden to to Kenya. So, so 2023 we by end of 23 we had I think I think 3 aircraft in operation 2024 we we were managed to bring in another another another another three aircraft into into service. Bear in mind that all this time we were ramping up the operation and the biggest limitation we had was the type rating of pilots. So in as much as we had aircraft, we could not operate because we had to 1st train and type rate and on average it takes about six months to type rate a pilot. So the whole of 2024 we're actually focusing on training and typrating of pilots and engineers because that was our limiting factor because we had to first of all build enough crew, crew capacity in terms of ratios and and then the and the engineering capacity as well. So it wasn't so much the aircraft, it was our limitation was was the crew and the personnel. And I think we invested more than in the whole of the little for more than almost more than $3,000,000 just on that process alone. We had to set up our own base maintenance facilities and line maintenance facilities in the Nairobi. And so, so that was the whole of forecast for 20, but even as we were ramping up the operations we we started off with the especially with the WFP world food program in in in Somalia we we were we were doing a lot of airlifts so. The whole of 2024 hour forecast, actually we only had one main client that was a world food programme. So as so by May 2025 we already had five aircraft already in in service. At the time when we started ENCOM, Aviation did not actually have its own AOC or or and AMO. So we're also setting up that process in parallel. So we started off that process in mid 2023, around July 2023 and by August 2024 we had been we achieved the full AOC and AMO for Encomm Aviation. That through the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority with the with the with the ATPS system, the main type. So all these processes were running in parallel. So and this time we're also bringing in all the parts. So actually 2025 was was was was the year that we are actually going now focusing. On bringing all the aircraft into service. Yeah, because it didn't make sense to bring aircraft into into return to service while you don't, if you don't have the crew to operate them and fly them, yeah. So it was a progressive plan and our plan was that by initially is that by by December, now by 2025 December. We would have would be now would be having at least 10 ATPs in service and would have also achieved and on the cruise side we were able to achieve by 2024 we were able to achieve we had I think we had managed to separate at least 30 pilots from scratch and we had more than 20 20 engineers. And technicians interpreted on the ATP as well. So, so the foundation was there to be able to to now scale up the operation from from from three aircraft to to to to 10 or 12 aircraft. Robert Luke OK, so you had successfully returned to service five of the AT PS, but three of them were actually flying in service and supporting the humanitarian flights you were contracted for. 2025 comes along. Tell us what when you exactly received the news that BAE would no longer support the actual aircraft type and when did you actually stop flying and how long do you have to get these aircraft back in the air or resolve the issue so that you don't lose the airworthiness of the aircraft right now that are actually now certified? Jackton Obuola Yes. So, so throughout this process we've been engaging with BAE given of course we're conscious that I mean it's part of the airworthiness process we as part of our renewals we have to you know work with very closely with BAE and to be fair BAE has been a very close supporter supported us from the beginning. In the process of getting all those aircraft certified issued with airworthiness certificates, we've worked very closely with the BAE. We've received very good Technical Support through their their portal. We had in place what we call the ACASAS support agreement in place for for for the aircraft. So we were also mindful that being the the last remaining operator of this type anywhere in the world. There was always that exposure and and and uncertainty as to you know what if BAE you know so and and mindful of that last year May 2024 May we we sought and and and we reached out to BAE. And they invited us over to to the UK. We we we had a meeting, a conference with them in in in in Wathing. This was hosted by by Sewell, Sewell who are the parts. So BA brought together not just themselves but some of the key OEMs like Safran for the landing years we had. And we had the likes of Smith's Aero, also the landing gears. We had the people like Proptech who deal with the propellers. We had Sewells who are some of the biggest parts stock. So we had a three day conference with would be just to try and understand to share our plans with them, we we presented to them our our 15 year plan, return to service plan for for all the aircraft that were acquired by this time, which by this time we had 13 aircraft and we expressed to them our desire that and the need for you know very positive confirmation and assurance from BAE that they will support us because by this, by this time, by this time we had invested more than more than in addition to the you know to the loans from EKN and we had invested more than $100 billion the entire operation over over the years, yeah. And and the investment was not just in the aircraft, we're looking at to know the training, the personnel, there's an additional a lot, a lot of the loans were actually internal from the parent company of of of of Encomm. So given that we have made such a significant investment, we are very keen to get the assurance from BA that they will continue supporting us and indeed what gave us the confidence to continue this project was BA's on what BA has told me. Or BAE's representative at the time, Mr. Andy Gray is. As long as there's one BAE aircraft in service ever, they will continue supporting it. Yeah, yeah. And and that that that was what gave us, you know, the the very confidence to continue with the ATP project. Yeah, that was May last year, 2024. So it was quite a bit of a shock that I think sometime in July, early this year, July 205, we came across the notice by BA for the surrender of the type certificate of the of the of the ATP. So this notice had actually been issued in May 2025, but it took us, but it was not notified to us. We never received notification from BAE or consultation. Robert Luke How did you get the notice? If you don't mind me asking, how did you come across it? Jackton Obuola I think it's one of our one of our staff, Michael was I think maybe you know going through doing some searches and then came across this notice which apparently had been published on the UKCA website. So it was quite a bit of a shock to us because all this time. Communication with BAE on technical matters on almost on an ongoing basis, but for some reason they chose not to inform us of their intention to to to surrender the types certificate for the ATP. So, so the the, the, the, the surrender is actually happening in June 2026. But you know the the upon receiving the notice it we we we had to make some very quick decisions as to the future of the business because suddenly we there were a lot of investments we're still making. For instance, we were in the process of overhauling landing gears, overhauling engines, returning to service a lot of aircraft. We are actually we had just almost spending almost ten $15 million in that whole return to service program. Now there's no way you're going to spend that kind of investment for an aircraft that only has less than one year left to service to in service. Because when you overhaul landing gear you get 12 years of life. When you overhaul propellers you get 7 years. When you overhaul engines you have almost 4,000 hours. So all of these are decisions that you make in the context of 8 to 10 to 15 year horizon. It's not possible to recover these investments that we've made in the in the in the in the within a year. So and at that point we also needed to make a lot of decisions around you know training or addition because we had to keep on training. We had just invested significant amounts of money, almost $2,000,000 relocating a simulator from Copenhagen to Nairobi. Yeah, we had just received consignment of almost. I think we have close to 3040 spare part containers in Nairobi, which are still being held at customs, which we needed to clear this was so there was significant investments that we needed to make and continue making because by this time given the success, success in the in the in the start-up of the Lt. operations. We were actually overwhelmed with with inquiries. In fact, we had one one partner, Somer, who had signed up to take up 6 ATPS for a 10 year dry lease period. We had just been certified by UN as a level 2 vendor for aircraft services and we were looking to towards, you know, getting into long term contracts with the various UN missions. We were about to renew our WFP contract for another year, another year from first 1st of August. So suddenly we are caught up in this, in this, in this notice that where here you are trying to sign long term contracts up to 10 years, but the certificate of of type certificate for the aircraft is has got less than a year to go. Robert Luke Understood. So thank you for sharing that, Jackton. If I may, I want to backtrack back to May 2024 when you met with BAE and the rest of the manufacturers and OEMs that support the ATP. What would your decision have been if you were alerted or notified during this meeting that they no longer plan to continue supporting the ATP freighter type and the passenger variant. What would have been your strategic course and direction? Jackton Obuola Well, for for one, we probably would have pivoted away from the type in a more orderly manner, probably would have gone into discussions with the BAE with regards to, you know, other other modalities for maintaining and retaining the tax certificate because there there's precedence on on this. I mean there's this, this, this, this. It's possible to continue. I mean operating. There are ways you could transfer the certificates to another third party to continue maintaining the certificate. So we would have had time and by that actually be a lot of our investments were made between decisions were made between 2024 and 2025. Yeah, so there's a lot of it would have saved ourselves a lot of money by not by not by that point in time, but and we would have of course looked at other other other other types of other other other platforms. But for us, of course knowing BA is, is, is not a small brand. I mean BA is a significant, significant brand and for us their word was all we needed to to hear that as long as there's one type flying and and if you look at other types, look at Fokker 50s, look at Fokker 27, these are these types are still flying and they've been flying for a long time. But the manufacturer was Anthony Fokker even went bankrupt, I don't know, maybe 30 years ago. Robert Luke Yes. Now with that being said. Jackton Obuola Yeah, but the difference is the type certificate has never been surrendered. Robert Luke Hmm, understood. Jackton Obuola Yeah, the type certificates are still valid. Robert Luke Now with that being said, is there still room to work out this type of solution given the circumstances that you're facing right now? Then how open to that discussion has your supporter or manufacturer BAE been open to discussing that as an option moving forward. Jackton Obuola No, no, I think first of all the it was a the the notice had a very immediate and very catastrophic impact on the on the business because we had to immediately because we were the timing of it you know we learned just about it in July and we we we needed to decide whether to continue or or cease operations immediately and we decided to cease operations immediately because otherwise we're going to get into even more you know liabilities and and and and if we didn't so. So the decision we made then was was was to actually we declare all the all our staff redundant. We had to issue a redundancy notice in line with the labour, Kenyan labour regulations. I think we barely we gave our staff barely 2 weeks of notice. Yeah, because without doing that, then we would have ended up with even more significant liabilities. And even as we speak, we have ourselves, we are being sued by very many of our former partners, West Atlantic, one of them we they had some vendor. Facilities are extended to us over 3 million, over $3,000,000. We have suits from CAE Copenhagen on the simulator. We have suits from some of the staff who are, you know, for termination. We have suits from we have customs, the liabilities for all the container spare parts that we we, we delivered but were yet to clear from the customs. It actually still stuck at the customs warehouses we have. We had just signed up new leases for workshops and and and spare parts. We had just moved in. Literally we moved in in in June to new premises we had those had to be terminated after less than two to three months of occupation. So even as we speak the the, the, the suits are still coming, they're still coming and so. But the thing is, if you read the notice itself, I don't know whether we've had to look at it. It did not offer any room for, you know, near for. It actually states that it's irrevocable. The surrender is irrevocable. But at this stage it's moot. I mean it's already, it's already too late because as we speak, I think even all the aircraft have all the airworthiness certificate certificates are already expired. The AOC itself is, is, is is is now expired. We've let all the staff, all the crew, everybody is is is is has moved on. So basically the operation is is is completely seized as as as we speak. Robert Luke OK. So my question to you now is as the owner of the ATP Freighters, I presume that's the financier that guaranteed you for the funding. What's the next steps in that regard as you continue to go through your legal process with BAE and what is the next steps for Encomm as far as aviation is concerned? Jackton Obuola Far as you know, cargo aviation is concerned to be honest with it's something we are writing off from our books this this year we have to we're going to have to take a very significant write down over $100 million write off or or or or or. Or at least impairment charge. So it's going to be an interesting and interesting one. But so we we decided to move on. We're looking at other platforms, you know drones is is an interesting area that we're already you know developing and and working on. So that still continues but as far as as far as the general aviation cargo I think for us that that that is sadly that's that's a chapter that's that's closed for us it's it's after all the investments the time and the effort it's it's very difficult to to restart it again. Fortunately Swedish Export Credit weekend, they've been very supportive again as they have been in the past. We yeah in discussions with them to on how to you know restructure and and and refinance the the, the, the, the facilities that we see or which we still have to pay. In spite of BA's actions we we still have and and fortunately the business is it's a very diversified business and it's not just aviation that is in the in the in the business. So the rest of the business still continues to thrive. So that that fortunately. Has has been helpful but for now we are focusing on the on the on the legal because because for me it it's it's what BE has done. I don't know whether there's I don't know if there's precedent maybe maybe you can you know about precedent but it's very interesting because we, the financiers, it can now find that find themselves in a very interesting scenario where they're holding on to assets that are worthless. They're basically scrap, scrap metal, yeah. And yet they are properly charged a security for for the for the loan facilities. Yeah. Which are still in place. Yeah. So and I think this is something that's going to continue to impact aviation in future because aviation finance because most financiers will have to think twice about financing aircraft because they love to ask themselves, is the manufacturer going to maintain the type certificate during the life of the loan facility? Or are they just going to wake up one day and surrender the certificate at will? Yeah, because let's remember when BAE issued the tax certificate for this aircraft, they never, they never had an expiry date on that tax certificate. We we have aircraft that are much, much older, much older. Foka 50s, Foka 27s. We have the shorts 360s. We have, we have late for 10s. They're still flying. Yeah, these are 40 50 year old aircraft still in service in in in Africa. The only reason is the no their type certificates have not been have not been surrendered. Robert Luke How much damage has been done to your identity in the air cargo sector and how did that play into your decision right now that you just confirmed to not re-enter that space? Jackton Obuola Well, it's significant because we had to, you know, terminate lots of existing contracts, World Food programme included. They were very unhappy because by by this year we had become almost the the prime premier cargo carrier for World Food programme and humanitarian. The distribution in Somalia and to a large extent in South Sudan. So obviously the on the customer, on the client side, I mean we had built a very good reputation. Obviously now that reputation is is gone down the drain because we can't, we can't support it with the with the product and with the with the with the fleet. But but and and that's part of the the claims we we we we are making against this BAE because if you notice in that surrender notice they expressly mentioned that Encomm Aviation is is the last you know, operator of BAE and that's partly why they're deciding to to to surrender the the type, which of course puts our reputation into into into into into significant disrepute because, yeah. So, so we'll forever be associated with the, with the, with the ATP because that was our brand in East Africa. Everybody associated the Encomm Aviation with ATP. Nobody believed ATP would ever be able to fly and and and and serve successfully in in this region. And we we proved that it could and it had come to a point where we're beginning to take a significant market share in the in the if you speak to the operators suddenly they they were actually growing quite fast. So I mean that's that's part of the the I think the issues we have to dealing with right now on the legal claims with BAE. Robert Luke Gotcha. Understood. So Speaking of market share, I just want to now transition into this question as you were in operations and you were moving more than 18 metric tons of cargo over the time that you've actually started flying. wth the ATP freighters, how much of an expense did you see potentially with your market and what were you seeing as far as the potential growth of the African cargo market as you were going forward? Jackton Obuola Yeah. So we're actually looking very actively to expanding the the fleet already. So we're already in very active in South Somalia, we're just started getting into South Sudan and we were so, so we're looking at then next plan was going to be in Central Africa Republic and then Congo. Was there was a next destination. So we're we're actually expecting by 2026 the the entire ATP fleet would be fully, I would say sold out, utilised and we're already looking at what next, what next in terms of because you realize that no one actually builds, no manufacturer, aircraft manufacturer builds aircraft for Africa. And if we look today, there's very limited options in terms of the regional cargo, the fleet where between Dash 8, ATR, ATP, this, this and and of course now FOKKER 50s and FOKKER 40s have been discontinued from from any new registrations. So the question you ask is which, which, which is this other type that's going to fill the gap? Now ATPs are no longer there. Now the Shades Bombardier Q4s have not been manufactured since 2019. It's only de Havilland is only planning to resume production in 2028 I believe and if you look at the aviation market, the regional aviation, not just cargo, even passenger market, there's there's a huge bottle backlog and bottle link there's you can tell that all the operators jamba jet, Kenya Airways they're they're all suffering. LAM Mozambique Airlines, you look at Air Zimbabwe, they're all struggling to acquire aircraft because there are very few aircraft types, medium sized regional aircraft that are that are suited for Africa. So and you can see that in the in the in the fares, you can see that in the in the in the in the fleet type sizes. There's just no aircraft for the market. Yeah. And yeah, so it's it's it's it's it's and of course there's also other challenges related to the engines, Pratt and Whitney debacle with the engines and so on. So yeah. Robert Luke Understood. So Jackson, you made a good, a key statement there that there are no aircraft designed or suitable for the African markets. In your own words, tell us what does that ideal aircraft look like in your mind that could service the regional and the narrow body sectors within the African regions. Jackton Obuola So, so, so, so sort of the ideal platform is already there in the in the form of that 80 to 90 seater turboprop with the you know short field performance that can operate in poorly prepaved runways. There's a lot of high altitude areas that you have to operate from most of East Africa, Central Africa and and the Great Lakes region is is very is very high altitude mountainous regions. So and that segment today. I would say it's only two manufacturers. Of course De Havilland is not still not manufacturing any any aircraft. ATR is also, I would say, only not very suited, but ideally suited. I think it's something to do with the with the with the design of the of the wings and and and and and the engines. It's too low on the ground. Yeah, so. So it's I think this still remains a challenge and probably will remain a challenge because I don't see any aircraft today in in development that can service that that that that that gap unless and until maybe De Havilland resumes the Q400 production. Robert Luke OK, so. Jackton Obuola Yes, it will continue to remain a challenge into the into the into the near future. Robert Luke And on that note, Jackton, on behalf of the Cargo Facts editorial team, I would like to sincerely thank you for your transparency for allowing us to take an inside look at your operation from the start up to the point of operations coming to a halt, and what your plans are going to be as you continue to evaluate the drone segment and how it can benefit the Encomm operations overall. Thank you again for your time. Jackton Obuola Thank you. Robert Luke That was Encomm Aviation Director Jackton Obuola. And that’s all the time we have today. For more coverage of the freighter aircraft market, visit cargofacts.com. Thank you very much for tuning in, and join us again next time. Subscribe to Cargo Facts Connect on iTunes or Spotify , or download the episode on Transistor . Cargo Facts will present four invaluable events for airfreight professionals in the first half of 2026, starting with Cargo Facts LATAM, on Feb. 10-12. Register for Cargo Facts LATAM by Jan. 9 to take advantage of early-bird pricing. To see the agendas and register for the events, visit CargoFactsEvents.com .

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