Expect Flight Delays, Cancellations – NCAA

Aviation Nigeria

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Monday alerted airlines and pilots on the dangers inherent in the current harmatan haze being experienced across the country, saying that they must abide by weather report to avert safety breach.

In a circular signed by the Director General of the agency, Dr Harold Demuren, the regulatory body said the call was to alert all pilots on the hazards of harmattan haze and offered guidance to help prevent accidents caused by this weather phenomenon.

“Hazards and operational problems associated with harmattan is comparable to that of heavy fog. Thus, air-to-ground visibility is considerably reduced. Others include poor aerodrome visibility which might fall below the prescribed minima and in severe conditions.”

NCAA also noted that dust haze can blot out runways and markers over wide areas making visual navigation impossible; where terminal visibility falls below the prescribed weather minima, airlines and pilots should flights be delayed, diverted or cancelled.

The authority therefore advised pilots to recognise harmattan haze as a hazard and exercise maximum restraint when the condition is observed or forecast.

“It is therefore mandatory for all pilots to obtain weather briefing from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) including departure, en-route and destination  weather information prior to flight operations.

“The airlines and their flight crews should keep passengers informed of the situation  and of the potential for flight delays and possible cancellations. Safety considerations  must always be the highest priority,” the agency said.

Early morning flights were disrupted last Friday in the nation’s important cities of Lagos and Abuja as fog reduced visibility to non-flight levels.

Many domestic flights were disrupted and international flights were also affected as Virgin Atlantic Airways rerouted its flight to Lagos to Accra, while Arik Air flight from London to Lagos was diverted to Port Harcourt.

Passengers, who hurried to meet their flights in the morning yesterday, arrived the airports disappointed as the airlines rescheduled their flights from morning to noon, hoping that visibility would improve.

Thousands of passengers massed at the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) and the Murtala Muhammed Airport domestic terminal, known as MMA2,  hoping and waiting for the fog to clear.

FAAN advises on Yuletide travels.

Aviation Nigeria

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has advised Nigerians, especially air travelers  to make early preparations for their travel during the forthcoming Christmas and New Year holidays, to avoid the rush that usually takes place during these periods at major airports across the country.

Airports across the country usually witness a huge volume of passenger traffic during these holidays, due to increased local movements of passengers for people travelling for the holidays, added to those returning from different countries overseas for the same purpose.
The Authority also urges travelers to leave home early during these festive periods, in order to confirm their tickets and complete other pre-boarding formalities in good time because of the heavy vehicular movements on access roads close to the terminals that may cause some passengers to miss their flights.

According to the General Manager, Corporate Communication(FAAN), Mr Yakubu Dati,:''We also wish to advise vehicle owners to make use of our designated car parks when visiting the airports, whether for business or pleasure. It will help to de-congest the traffic on our access roads and also help to ensure the safety of lives and property within the airports. All vehicles parked in authorized places will therefore be towed and appropriate fines imposed on defaulters''.
It will be noted that the Federal Government has embarked on the transformation of the aviation industry into an efficient and effective sector, spearheaded by the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah.

This has led to the remodelling of 11 airport terminals round the country and the upgrading of power projects across the country, among other projects.


Yakubu Dati
General Manager, Corporate Communications

Delta Air Lines to buy 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Sky Watch Nigeria.

Delta Air Lines Incorporated is nearing a deal to buy a 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited from Singapore Airlines Limited and may pay less than $500m for it, three people familiar with the matter said.

The price range is $300m to $500m and an agreement may be announced this week, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Singapore Airlines paid £600m for the Virgin Atlantic stake in 1999, or about $966m now.

Bloomberg News reported that Delta and Virgin Atlantic may seek a joint venture on trans-Atlantic routes as part of the arrangement, two of the people said.

Virgin Atlantic’s base at London Heathrow airport is a gateway for flights across the North Atlantic, the world’s most lucrative market for premium passengers.

“Heathrow access, that’s what Delta finds attractive here,” said Savanthi Syth, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates Incorporated in St. Petersburg, Florida, who rates Atlanta- based Delta outperform.

“This is not necessarily a carrier that they expect to make a big return on investment on. There’s a reason Singapore is getting out.”

Virgin Atlantic, founded and majority-owned by United Kingdom billionaire Richard Branson, posted a pretax loss of $129m for the year ended in February, and has delayed adding planes.

Representatives of Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Airlines and Delta declined to comment about the sale process.

Delta, Air France-KLM and their SkyTeam partners are the smallest alliance group at Heathrow, with about 5 percent of takeoff and landing slots. Oneworld, led by British Airways and AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, dominates with almost half of all service, followed by United Continental Holdings Inc. and its Star Alliance partners with about a quarter of slots.

Aviation Industry: Giant strides amidst a season of media denigration

By Skywatch correspondent.

Any avid news follower of Nigerian news especially news from the aviation sub-sector would have noticed the calculated campaign of calumny that has been drawn up by paid mischief makers to derail the steady but surely revolution that is daily gaining grounds in the aviation industry. However, the pay masters of these faceless individuals and groups are no longer the beneficiaries from the corrupt cartels that have cornered all juicy deals in the aviation sector for several years. Independent investigations have shown that the sponsors of the tirades against the Ministry and the person of the Minister are those whose lobbying prowess has failed in the face of the singular determination to do good by God, country and above all give the much needed honest lease of life –to a sector that remains highly under utilised and remains one of the most important link in the transportation equilibrium of not only Nigeria but sub-saharan Africa and the entire globe.

Never in the history of Nigeria’s aviation has the Ministry come under such barrage of media misrepresentations like the one currently being thrown at the Ministry and the person of the Minister Princess Stella Adaze Oduah.

Every step of the Airport terminal reconstruction has been met with stiff resistant, even from prominent stakeholders, even at a time when the airports didn’t have functional amenities and were not worthy of being the terminals of one of Africa’s most important air routes. It is befuddling to hear aviation professionals say safety first before reconstruction, forgetting that though aviation safety is the singular most important factor in instilling the confidence in air travel, it is equally only a comfortably well equipped airport that can compliment air safety. An airport with safe runways, well demarcated perimeter fence and functional tower facilities, fire service hubs and clinics that can aide in ensuring that such edifice is fit for air travelling amidst optimum safety and comfort.

 As if the paid ghost writers haven’t had enough their pay masters have also told them to attack the process of the bidding of the airport projects, not even the Ministry of aviation’s explanation of the projects being emergency projects in order the fast track the development of the sector has dissuade them from peddling their outright lies and half truths.

The investment drive abroad in search of competent aviation professionals to become big players in Nigeria’s aviation sector was greeted with so much disdain that if not for her patriotic zeal, the attention currently being enjoyed by potential investors wouldn’t have even been thought of. Another much maligned aspect of the Minister’s transformation drive has been the misconception and misrepresentation of the facts about the BASA fund, an interventionist fund meant for the ministry which the minister has said part of it will be channelled towards bequeathing world class airport terminals and other safety facilities at our airports nationwide. 

In fact not even fatal and tragic crashes that characterised the tenure of Prof. Babalola Borishade did the Ministry suffer such negative criticisms and wholesome cynicism. To refresh our minds a bit after Prof. Borishade was replaced on November 2 2006 four days after the crash of ADC Airlines Boeing 737 passenger aircraft, two years later he was later to be arraigned alongside his successor Femi Fani Kayode for their roles in the mismanagement of the 19.5 Billion Naira aviation intervention fund. One of the highlights of this sordid case was when an Austrian executive mentioned during a hearing that they had paid Borishade the sum of 1 Billion Naira in order to acquire the contract for the remodelling of the airports. Yet the aforementioned were not daily staples in our news items 6 years ago.

It is sad that some so-called stakeholders will rather wish for Nigeria’s aviation sector to remain underdeveloped at the expense self interest, it is important that at this critical juncture we are come together to ensure that we have an aviation sector that is amongst one of the best in Africa, the steps are already being taken, its time to rally round the Minister and ensure that the strides currently being made are sustained for the generality of Nigerians and those unborn.