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$6m safety tools: Nigerian carriers deficient, foreign airlines’ benefit
The multimillion dollar Instrument Landing System (ILS) installed at some of the nation’s airports amounts to a waste of resources as domestic airlines do not have the requisite facilities on-board their aircraft to allow for them to land in inclement weather, Woleshadare.net has learnt.
Foreign airlines, it was gathered, are the ones enjoying the facilities as they can operate and land in inclement and foggy weather, but the reverse is the case with Nigerian carriers as they are deficient in using such equipment.
Nigerian carriers approximately lose over N1 billion during harmattan season occasioned by flight delays and cancellations.
Most times they make a return after hovering for minutes, occasioned by their inability to land, thereby leading to huge cost on aviation fuel.
President, Nigerian Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), Mr. Victor Eyaru, told this newspaper that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) may not be doing enough as the aviation regulatory body to compel airline owners to install corresponding equipment on-board their airplanes to enable them land their aircraft, especially during harmattan season.
Eyaru said that all the country’s navigational facilities are working at optimal levels, with precision approach landing aids at the five international airports where traffic is high also in top form.
The air traffic controller disclosed that the era of flight disruptions occasioned by harmattan or inclement weather is supposed to have become a thing of the past if the carriers had done what they were supposed to have done despite the over $6 million ILS installed at Lagos, Kano and other airports.
Some of the ILS are Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) and VHF omnidirectional range (VOR). The DME is a navigation beacon, usually coupled to enable aircraft to measure their position relative to that beacon. Aircraft send out signal, which is sent back after a fixed delay by the DME.
Although the Managing Director of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, has been silent on cost of procuring the instrument, aggregating the numbers from several quarters, getting a Category II/III system up and running these days would cost at least $3 million per runway, plus at least $10,000 or so per year just to keep it certified.
Early last year, the Federal Government, through NAMA, made order and contracts for 11 airfields ILS Visibility at many of the bad aerodromes, but with operable ILS to go to the aerodromes, “many expected the airlines not to give excuse of not being able to land in harmattan.
Corroborating Eyaru, Akinkuotu revealed that the Agency had already installed Performance Based Navigation (PBN) in at least 18 of Nigeria’s airports, but lamented that Nigerian carriers, except one, do not have corresponding equipment in their aircraft to make use of the facility, so foreign airlines are the ones enjoying the facility.
The NAMA MD stated that the PBN installed by the Agency has helped to reduce the visibility minimums, adding that there are 18 of them at the nation’s aerodromes.
His words: “As I speak, only the foreign airlines make use of the type of corresponding equipment that they have on-board their aircraft. We have PBN at least in 18 of our airports. Arik Air is the only indigenous carrier that benefits from it. They can fly to lower minimums so long as their pilots are trained. But they have approval to utilise their on-board equipment and use PBN.”
According to him, the airplanes must have to meet certain requirements, stressing that they would need to have dual autopilot.
“This is because when you are flying zero visibility in Category three ILS, the pilot is not handling the situation; it is machines that will be doing the landing and take-off. So, there should be dual autopilot functioning in the airplane.
“This is because when you are flying zero visibility in Category three ILS, the pilot is not handling the situation; it is machines that will be doing the landing and take-off. So, there should be dual autopilot functioning in the airplane.
” The pilot has to be trained so that he will be able to fly in the dark and rely on the machines. The pilot has to be trained regularly for it. This can be done with simulator training. The on-board equipment has to meet the requirement. Those are the things that have to be put in place by the airline,” he added.
