The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has completed the installation of a VSAT station at the Jos airport in Plateau State in line with its resolve to totally eliminate blind spots in the nation’s airspace.
With the installation which was completed a week ago, the agency has successfully integrated the VHF radio into the network in that sector.
Speaking on this development, the Managing Director of NAMA, Captain Fola Akinkuotu said this new installation had greatly improved the upper airways radio communication in the North East sector to the delight of air traffic controllers and pilots alike.
He expressed optimism that the challenge of radio blind spots in some parts of the nation’s upper airspace would soon be history as the ongoing massive deployment of VSAT network and VHF radio systems embarked upon by the agency was yielding positive results.
He noted that the Jos – Obudu corridor which had experienced radio blind spots over time had to be tackled headon reatlye of the intense traffic on that axis, even as he commended NAMA engineers for addressing the problem with the installation of the new VSAT terminal.
Akinkuotu said under the ongoing AIS Automation project, the Installation of VSAT station had been completed in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, NAMA headquarters and Jos while that of Kano VSAT master station would commence by next week.
He also stressed that the installation of the VSAT stations would be done in 26 airports while the VHF radios would be installed in 14 strategic remote sites to finally eliminate radio blind spots in the upper airways segment of the entire Nigerian airspace.
