The Managing Director, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, Mr. Nnamdi Udoh, on Monday said that over 500 flights passed through the nation’s airspace daily.
Nnamdi, who spoke at a news conference in Lagos, however, said that the figure did not include overflying flights, which do not land in Nigerian airports.
According to him, air traffic has increased astronomically in recent years, adding that the situation has forced the agency to embark on critical projects to boost the capacity of its navigational facilities.
He said the development also informed why the agency recently started the process of decongesting the Lagos Area Control Centre of the airspace.
He said, “With growing traffic, especially at peak period, the main Lagos Aerial Control Centre frequency, 127.3MHz, had become congested with attendant challenges posed to pilots. The agency in her typical manner commenced the process of categorising the Lagos ACC. And based on the project timeline of December 17, 2012, the Lagos ACC would have been categorising.”
He added, “I want to use this opportunity to reassure Nigerians that our airspace is safe. To address some of the challenges we had in the past, the agency embarked on many critical projects to reposition and strength the navigational facilities in the airspace.”
Udoh explained that a team of air traffic controllers and engineers was already working on the technical and operational implementation of the categorisation.
The Director of Operations, Mr. Mukaila Solola, said NAMA had taken major steps to address radio communication challenges facing the airspace, adding that currently, only Nigeria could boast of having the Performance Based Navigation system in Africa.
PBN is a shift from ground based-navigation to satellite-based.
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