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.

Over 500 flights pass through Nigerian airspace daily - NAMA.

Sky Watch Nigeria.

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.

FAAN to embark on Professional Staff assessment.

Sky Watch Nigeria.

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)has embarked on 'professional' assessment of the staff of the Authority, to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills that would ensure the success of the transformation agenda in the aviation industry.

According to the General Manager, Corporate Communications of FAAN, Mr Yakubu Dati,the assessment exercise entails a rigorous process that would enable staff key into the transformation agenda and identify their expected roles in the aviation master plan.

He pointed out that the Federal government in realization of the fact that the massive improvement in the infrastructure at the airports without corresponding added value in human resources, has made it imperative for staff to re-orientate for the success of the aviation road map.

Dati said that FAAN remained committed to fulfilling its mission to be among the best airport groups in the world.

Lagos ACC as effective radio coverage sector - NAMA

Sky Watch Nigeria.

Nigerian Airspace Management Agency(NAMA) has taken another bold step in improving air traffic services within the nation's airspace as the Lagos Area Control Center is being sectorized  to de-congest  the existing radio frequency.

According to the management, the current radio frequency -127.3 MHz  for the Lagos Area Control Center, is now congested following  heavy traffic within the Southern airspace, adding that the best solution now is to create additional frequency to allow for effective radio communication between pilots and air traffic on controllers.

Consequently, the management has therefore raised another frequency on 120.9MHz to decongest the current one and as part of the Operational Readiness Review  (ORR) which includes new procedures being drawn, gap analysis, and safety audit while the engineers and air traffic  controllers are presently  testing the new frequency .

According to the management, the new radio frequency will be deployed for operation by Monday 17,December,2012 when the integrity of the system is ascertained .

Globally, from time to time air traffic system management are redefined  to accommodate new additional equipment  and that is what the agency has been doing of recent  to allow for service delivery.

Attesting to the latest development, the General Manager, Public Affairs of NAMA, Mr Supo Atobatele affirmed that, :''Once again ,the agency would like to confirm the integrity of all our navigation equipment across the nation's airports and this management would not succumb to blackmails by any group within the system''.

He added that,:''NAMA,with the strong support of the Federal government through its various capital projects,remains a leading Air Navigation Service Provider in the Continent and the management under the leadership of Engineer Mazi Nnamdi Udoh has vowed to remain focused in taking the agency to a global reckoning''