NCAA boss stresses importance of global, regional air navigation plans

The Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Muhtar Usman, has emphasized the need for the aviation authorities in Nigeria to urgently develop and implement short, medium and long term plans in line with the global and regional air navigation plans, in order to achieve demand and capacity balancing within an acceptable level of safety performance.

The call fell in line with the projection by both the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Organization (IATA) that global traffic volume is expected to double by 2030 .

Making his opening remarks at a high level workshop on Global Air Navigation Plan (GANP) organized for the NCAA by the ICAO), the NCAA DG appealed to his colleagues in other sister aviation agencies to key into the benefits inherent in the programme in view of the caliber of delegation from the ICAO headquarters in Montreal, Canada.

While urging all the Chief Executives of the agencies “to maximize the immense opportunity the workshop has afforded in order to align our air navigation planning with the strategic  objectives of the global and  regional air navigation plans.”

According to Usman, the ICAO vision is encapsulated in the global Air Traffic Management  operation concept aimed at achieving a global ATM system for all users during all phases of flights that meets agreed level of safety, provides for optimum economic operations, meet national security requirements which is environmentally sustainable.

Emphasising the objective of the global air navigation plan, the NCAA Chief maintained that this will provide a framework for harmonisation of services and procedures, enhancement of global interoperability of systems and data in order to  ensure a safe, secure, efficient, economic and seamless global ATM system that is  environmentally sustainable.

The ICAO workshop which he  said  was in  line with the Council’s policy of ‘No Country Left Behind’ will provide a framework for collaborative decision making, collaborative air navigation planning as well as collaborative implementation of plans through the aviation system block upgrade.