The Director General, Nigerian Meteorolgical Agency (NiMet), Prof Mansur Matazu says the agency is committed to improving infrastructure and equipment for weather observation and forecasting at the nation’s airports.
Speaking during the safety week organised by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria in Abuja, Prof. Matazu said, the issue of climate change, climate variability and associated impacts had increased uncertainties around weather occurrences and their intensities.
He said, it had call for the need for the delivery of timely, accurate and reliable aeronautical meteorological products and services, to ensure that the ever-increasing safety standards in the sector are not only met but continually maintained.
Matazu noted that governments and organisations worldwide were always working round the clock to ensure the safety of air operations across boundaries stressing that the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Federal Ministry of Aviation, had at various points over the past years demonstrated its readiness to ensure that the nations aviation sector was safe and secure for stakeholders and passengers.
According to him, the approach by FAAN Management, to cascade this year’s Safety Week events in order to ensure there was a buy-in of this laudable initiative by all the internal and external stakeholders in the Aviation Industry was reminiscent of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency’s Seasonal Climate Prediction downscaling initiative.
“In this initiative. the general SCP document is modified and spatially targeted to states and their entire Local Government Areas thereby making our predictions more impactful and further engendering ownership from the localities mapped. Events such as this are the right avenue to sensitize stakeholders and the general public on the New Normal: safety measures being championed by the Authority”.
The Nimet boss said, the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on global air transport was unprecedented stressing that last year had been particularly difficult for the aviation sector, as a result of the tremendous decline in passenger traffic and generated revenues.
“The continuous emergence of the multiple variants and waves of the virus is still presenting the aviation sector with huge challenges but also with an opportunity to explore alternative means of maximizing potentials in the sector. The challenge of the pandemic has redefined Safety as regards to air travel in particular and airport management in general”.
Prof. Matazu noted that in a move to ensure that the giant steps taken and gains made by the Agency in the aviation sector in recent years were not eroded, on assumption of office constituted an Aviation Task Team to assess and evaluate the state of equipment and infrastructure across all the airports in the country and make recommendations where necessary, for improved safety and service delivery.
He said, the Team had so far assessed the nation’s Airports at Abuja, Kaduna, Lagos, Katsina, Kano and currently in Port Harcourt enroute Calabar Airports, stressing that assessments of other airports have also been scheduled to commence soon.
The NiMET boss, commended the Managing Director, Management and Staff of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) for their sustained efforts in ensuring there was adequate space, comfort, safety and security of passengers and other key stakeholders across the nation’s airports.
