Nigeria’s Airspace Safe — NAMA

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.

The Managing Director of NAMA, Captain Folayele 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.

Akinkuotu who explained that the agency had taken drastic steps to tackle communication challenges especially in the upper airspace in the past couple of years, added that significant progress was being made in that direction.

The NAMA Chief while stating that the development had seen to the upgrading of communication infrastructure in phases added that radio communication in the ground control, covering 65 nautical miles at the 32 air traffic control units in Nigerian airports were perfect “and this was done under phase one of the project.”

The second phase which is the tower control and also covering 65 nautical miles and critical for landing and takeoff according to Akinkuotu “is perfectly working in all the 32 airports in the country. The third phase which is the approach communication and covering up to 130 nautical miles is working perfectly in all the 32 air traffic control units in the country.”

Admitting that although the last phase which is the Area Control or Upper Airspace Communication may have a few challenges, he attributed these to the creation of new routes just as he said concerted efforts 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 Very High Omnidirectional Radio Range (VHF) remote radio stations deployed then.

“There is also the deployment of 54 VSAT nodes, inside the Aeronautical Information Services Automation project. This project has lingered through all the regimes in NAMA but we are currently making efforts to see to the final takeoff of the automation project which we believe would boost our communication system.”

Earlier in his remarks, the Chief Operating Officer of Ibom Air, Uriesi said their visit was in accordance with the desire of the airline to interface with critical stakeholders and create partnerships in its quest to become a reputable airline that would be the pride of the nation.

(Nigerian Tribune)