‘NAMA committed to digital aeronautical information service’

The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has restated its commitment towards accelerating the digitalization of Aeronautical Information Service in view of the centrality of data automation to the overall safety of civil aviation.

The Managing Director of the Agency, Captain Fola Akinkuotu made these remarks on the occasion of the World AIS Day which held at the agency’s headquarters in Lagos.

According to Akinkuotu, “in view of critical deliverables of the Aeronautical Information Management (AIM) project such as the enhancement of e-NOTAM, e-Flight Planning, e-AIP,   e-TOD, e-Charts, e-Flight briefing etc, and  “given that it represents a global migration to a dynamic data oriented aeronautical information management system that facilitates the timely exchange of aeronautical information in an accurate and standardized format from anywhere to everywhere globally, on real time basis, the automation project is a must-do for NAMA.”

The NAMA Chief said for the dream of AIS Automation to be realized, that it behoved staff of the department to put in their best to see that their service both at the individual and group level remains invaluable, adding that they could do this through extensive research and paper presentation at seminars,

While stressing that the absence of AIS in the system will bring about chaos in the entire civil aviation, Akinkuotu declared:  “AIS remains one of the most critical departments in the agency even though they are hardly given the prominence they deserve, because their job most often, is behind-the-scene”.

In his welcome address, the General Manager, AIS, Mr Kabir Gusau appealed to NAMA management to consider the periodic training and retraining of AIS personnel which according to him, “would bring staff up to speed with modern trends in a dynamic  aviation industry.