Yemisi Olusina
The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has assured airlines and other airspace users that the nation’s airspace is safe for seamless and economic air navigation.
Managing Director of NAMA, Captain Fola Akinkuotu made these remarks while receiving the Chief Operating Officer of the newly established Ibom Air, Mr George Uriesi who led a delegation to the agency’s headquarters in Lagos.
He explained that the agency had taken drastic steps to tackle communication challenges especially in the upper airspace in the past couple of years, saying that significant progress was being made in that direction.
Captain Akinkuotu said this had seen to the upgrading of communication infrastructure in phases.
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According to him, radio communication in the ground control, covering 65 nautical miles at the 32 air traffic control units in Nigerian airports was perfect and this was done under phase one of the project.
He added that the second phase which was the tower control, also covering 65 nautical miles and critical for landing and takeoff, was perfectly working in all the 32 airports in the country.
The third phase which he referred to as “approach communication,” covering up to 130 nautical miles, according to him, was working perfectly in all the 32 air traffic control units in the country.
He admitted that although the last phase which was the Area Control or Upper Airspace Communication may have few challenges, he attributed these to the creation of new routes.
Concerted efforts, he said were being made to address these challenges, one of which was the deployment of the Total VHF Coverage of Nigeria in 2010 which he said was limited by the architecture of 8 VHF remote radio stations deployed then, adding that the agency had just taken delivery of Extended Range VHF radio systems to replace old the radios in 8 remote sites while six more are to be added, making them 14 in number.