Foreign airlines divert flights despite $6M weather tools
- Domestic airlines encounter delay, handicapped
- System can’t work in isolation without light, others
Foreign Airlines into the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos have continued to divert flights into neighbouring countries especially Accra, Ghana due to poor visibility for landing.
A top airline official at the Lagos airport who pleaded anonymity said two carriers from Europe, one from North Africa and another from East Africa diverted their flights because visibility was not good enough for landing.
Today, the visibility fluctuated and impeded aircraft landing and take off.
The newly installed category three Instrument Landing system (ILS) recently installed by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) to aid seamless landing are not fully in use due to the absence of runway and approach lights.
The Category 3 ILS cannot work in isolation without the aid of the runway and approach lights which are expected to have been installed by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria FAAN.
The runway and approach lights were supposed to have been upgraded by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) with the recently installation of the Category 3 ILS by NAMA.
Reports from other airports indicate that Calabar airport visibility is very poor and currently no aircraft is landing or taking off from there, flights met for the airport are being diverted to the Uyo Airport which has a functioning ILS for Operations.
Other International airports visibility like Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt are said to be good for take off and landing.
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
Domestic carriers are more affected because they do not have equipment onboard their airplanes to match the equipment on ground.
Foreign airlines, it was gathered, are the ones likely to enjoy 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.
But in this situation, foreign carriers especially African carriers are equally affected because most of them do not want to take chances especially when it comes to visibility
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.
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.
The Managing Director of NAMA, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu had told our correspondent recently that only 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.
” 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.
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