America’s positive pronouncement on Nigeria’s air safety encouraging —NAMA Boss

THE Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Captain Fola Akinkuotu has described as good news the recent pronouncement by the U.S Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that Nigeria’s air carriers’ operations were in compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) air safety standards saying that the development has rekindled hope in the sector.

Akinkuotu who said the aviation sector in Nigeria today was all together safe as accidents have remained at zero level for six consecutive years with serious or reportable incidents at acceptable levels, however added that this “does not presuppose there are no challenges and issues in the sector which deserve mention and require adequate attention.”

The NAMA boss who was a guest speaker at the annual Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) forum organised by PSRG-Richardson Oil and Gas which held at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos early in the week, used the occasion to charge the oil and gas sector in Nigeria to consider critically the production of aviation fuel (Jet A1) in the country in line with the Nigerian Content Development initiative of the Buhari administration.

Akinkuotu while stating that the call became imperative given  the high cost of aviation fuel which gulps over 30 percent of operational cost of airlines in Nigeria, added that apart from cost, the supply of the product was sometimes epileptic, resulting in flight disruptions even as he stressed that the production of Jet A1 in Nigeria would regularise supply, bring about reduced cost which would also translate into lower air fares by airlines.

The NAMA boss who delivered a paper on the topic; “Aviation Safety in Nigeria – Challenges, Issues and Solutions”, lamented the high cost of aircraft maintenance which he described as “atrocious, largely because these costs are domesticated in dollars.”

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He revealed however, that effort was being made by the Federal government to set up an MRO (Maintenance, Repairs and Operations) facility “as part of strategic plans to reduce capital flight, lower the times aircraft leave the country for repairs and lower the cost of maintenance.”

He used the opportunity to hint on the ongoing effort by the agency to embark on the modernisation of airspace infrastructure through the Installation of Instrument Landing System (ILS), Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), Doppler Very High Frequency Omnidirectional radio Range (DVOR) and Wide Area Multi-Lateration (WAM) for low flying aircraft surveillance and control, even as he revealed that Installation of ILS/DME and DVOR/DME was ongoing in 12 airport locations while Category III ILS will be completed in Abuja and Lagos before the end of the year.