The complaints by air traffic controllers and pilots of poor communication and flying blind in the nation’s airspace will soon be history as the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency,NAMA has started deploying radio communication equipment.
The Managing Director,NAMA Captain Fola Akinkuotu at the gateway forum of the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents in Lagos said efforts were on to reduce the workload of the pilots and controllers as some new communication equipment have been installed in some places.
He said before the end of April this year, there would be significant improvement with the new equipment in the clarity of communication but though they were not yet where they intend to be, it was a right step for now, “though not the totality required but a step to improvement”.
“We have bought 4 sets of new radio in the last one year to ensure clarity of communication, with such clarity, the workload of controllers and pilots are reduced”
“I like to believe that by the end of April, we should see some significant improvement. We are going to sectorize Lagos for example so that the job of the Air Traffic Controllers for example will become easier such that some people will talk to Lagos East, some people will talk to Lagos West with new equipment that will improve the clarity of communication.
On navigation, Akinkuotu said Instrument Landing system, ILS and Doppler very high Omni- directional range,DVOR had been installed in Kaduna and Kano airports while others are in line for new ILS and DVOR.
” Kano has new ILS and DVOR, Lagos is getting new ILS, with the civil work done, installation will follow, we have done 3 sets of calibration in the last one year to measure the accuracy of the equipment”.
Akinkuotu explaining further what the agency had done, said no stone would be left undone in promoting flight safety in the airspace.
In the area of surveillance, Akinkuotu said government had approved the installation of the multilateration equipment for the south east corridor to capture low flying objects and given them direction.
“We are making efforts, we are getting spares to maintain the system and government also approved the installation of the multilateration equipment in the southeast corridor such that we will be able to capture low flying objects and provide them guidance. So overall I think we have hit the three key areas that we are required. I don’t believe that any system can’t be perfect and so there is the need for us to continue to look at these things and improve on them.
” we have the capacity to achieve safety, we have engaged 30-40 new intending controllers, they are in school in Zaria same as the engineers, the technical arm of our agency, we are coping, we need more”.
In the area of welfare, the NAMA MD noted that,” I have had my fingers burnt, I cannot see what I have done but I heard and I have been told that in the area of welfare I have done okay, we have harmonized salaries, my people are happy”.
Akinkuotu explained that in the agency training was paramount,” there is need for training and retraining, being exposed to new information is key. I have heard my people have gotten more training to do their job better”.
