Senate worry over decrepit navaids at airports
*Jet A1 scarcity linked to cartel
The Senate today took a holistic look at the country’s aviation industry and concluded that the sector is indeed in trouble. They were particularly worried over poor radio communication between pilots and control towers.
The Senate committee on Aviation led by Senators Bala Ibn N’Allah and Jeremiah Useni who were on inspection of facilities at the Lagos airport stated that poor state of communication facilities and danger posed to air travel have forced them to raise concern over the precarious state of communication facilities.
The communication facilities across the airport in the country have been declared to be epileptic and dangerous to aviation.
The Senators decried the poor state of the controller/pilot VHf communication coverage of the country’s airspace and declared that it constituted a heavy risk since it did not meet required standard.
They said that the “horrible facilities” were dangerous to the safety of pilots, aircraft and passengers operating within the Nigerian airspace.
They were piqued that if navigational aids could work in countries like Togo, Ghana and Sao Tome, they wondered why same equipment can’t work in Nigeria.
The decrepit situation of the equipment they learnt has made it difficult for pilots to file flight plans; at times taking them one week to do so but with the planned overhaul of the equipment, it would take few hours to do so.
Na’ Allah who is also a pilot disclosed that he personally faced the problem when he flew his airplane to Lagos, describing the situation as dire, lamenting that foreign carriers are also complaining of the situation.
The Acting Managing Director of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Emmanuel Anyasi said the agency has taken delivery of navigational aids including Instrument Landing System (ILS) in four major airports across the country.
He further disclosed that 65 million Euros Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria system (TRACON) is working well but noted that the equipment designed to aid flight separation is becoming obsolete.
His words, “We will need to need to upgrade the radar. What we have in the radar that is functioning very well is the MOD-S. We need hard ware upgrade of the system including software that is outdated. We need the latest version.”
Meanwhile, the Senate has indicated plans to unbundle the aviation fuel sector, as they described the current scarcity of JET A1 to activities of people they described as cartels.
“The fuel problem is caused by cartels. They tell you scarcity is as a result of the unrest in Niger Delta but there is heavier unrest in Southern Sudan. We will unbundle it. A committee is set up to unbundle it.”
Scarcity of aviation fuel has taken a toll on the aviation industry as travellers were left stranded at many of the aerodromes across the country.
In Nigeria, despite the stability in the lifting of aviation fuel across the country and the deregulation of the commodity, JET A1 has hit an all-time high of N220 per litre.
The skyrocketing price of JETA1 in Nigeria has added more to the pains of airlines, which use 30 per cent of their revenues for fuelling aircraft.
Aviation fuel is central to the operations of an airline, as it constitutes between 35-40 per cent of an airline’s cost. The price of the commodity – laden with taxes – in the West African sub-region, is the highest in Africa.
While the specialised fuel is sold for about $2.30 cents per gallon in Nigeria, $2.30 in Benin and $1.94 cents per gallon in Cameroon, it is sold for close to $3.14 cents in Ghana, which also produces oil. In Luanda, Angola (also an oil producing country), it costs $3.75 per gallon; Libreville $2.05 per gallon; Khartoum, Sudan $2.44 per gallon.
It is only Equatorial Guinea that sells JET A1 for $0.46. Jet fuel prices in some African capitals are double the global average and it is posing a threat to its aviation sector development.
The high cost of jet fuel in Africa compared to other regions due to distribution inefficiencies and infrastructure constraints, has held back the development of airlines and fare reduction.
Google+
