- NAMA attains ISO 9001 certification
- Record 5.2 billion people to take to air travel, airlines’ revenue to hit $1 trillion in 2025-IATA
- Why Nigeria’s wet lease pact remains unprofitable-Sanusi
- 'Stingy' airlines amid exploitative fare inquisition
- IATA: Nigeria maintains clean record, owes no foreign airline
With new ILS, we have capability to land in zero condition, says NAMA MD
Capt. Fola Akinkuotu is the Managing Director of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA). He has worked in the aviation Industry for 44 years. He was at various times, Rector, Ilorin Aviation Training School before he served briefly as Director-General Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). In this interview with WOLE SHADARE in Kaduna, he spoke on the plan by the Federal Government to provide Instrument Landing Systems (ILSs) in 11 airports across the country, the hard work put into upgrade of Kaduna airport and how NAMA intend to make the country’s airspace safer. Excerpt
What equipment do you have in Kaduna airport?
We have Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) which allows you to move a distance from the airfield. It has two channels; one on standby and one on normal. Like I said, they are brand new. It has been operating nicely and they need power. There are two generators to support them and they consume diesel. We keep an eye on them. Inside there contains transmitter The aircraft establishes itself with the equipment ten nautical miles away from the threshold. We might also add to what our pilots say on the capability we have with our equipment. This system is category two ILS which will bring us down to 100 feet above elevation and visibility of less than 800 meters which is quite good. Our visibilities do not good that bad. They can be bad but I am sure for 95 per cent of the time, an operable ILS system, we should be able to get it any time. Come December, there should be no excuse of them not landing in harmattan.
How are we going to replicate this in other airports across the country to minimise the problem of harmattan haze?
Government has tried. Government of Nigeria has done very well. We have an order, contracts for 11 airfield ILS. I know there is Lagos, Minna, PHC, Benin, Abuja, Kaduna etc. They are 11 that are going to be installed. They are brand new. Don’t let us forget that they are going to recover some items. Lagos has an ILS; I think Ibadan too is going to get newer ones. So, whatever we recover, we can put them in some other places. I would expect that over time when the materials, assets are in we should be able to do not less than 18 fields and we all these places are not in hot demand.
After we revert back to Abuja, we hope these facilities won’t be dormant and not be too much for the capacity we are going to have later when Abuja returns?
Airport utilization depends on commercial needs. Way back, I remember some years back, Kaduna airport was full of activities. When I flew out of Kaduna; we will start at 7 am in the morning and the last flight would come in at about 6.30pm and we were not the only ones, a lot of airlines. I am hoping and praying that Kaduna airport will remain, just get revival of economic activities. It is our hope and desire that Kaduna should get back to its old glory.
Look at it from this point of view. Kaduna has good catchment area. Population in Zaria is big. We should encourage students from NCAT to fly out of this place. When I was in Zaria, we flew out of this place and there are still people there flying out of Zaria, so, the airlines should make that drive. What drives economic activities is travelling activities. We will not shut down this place just because Abuja will return after six weeks. Kaduna has ILS 05 approach. It is up to the airlines to use but what the airlines should do is to market themselves, make themselves available so that people will know that flying to Lagos or to Abuja by jet is safe and is quicker by going by road where you can be exposed to all the other things people don’t like.
How about the localiser
The localiser provides guidance in lateral dimension on the lateral plain. Cooling is essential for this component. If they are exposed to heat, they are going to fail. Apart from just providing electricity, you have to provide cooling of the system. These are things that are challenges to NAMA. Quite often you hear about of billions of naira being spent and people will say why do you need it? Like they say, if you think safety is expensive, try accident. God forbid. These things provide guidance and drive the economy. You can imagine, now that you mentioned that airplanes might not be able to come in during harmattan season, if they don’t come, there would be reduction in the economic activities in this zone but with the position of this, it means there would be all year flying in this place irrespective whether it is dust haze or early morning mist; I can guarantee you can do all year round flights in this place. The challenges in Port-Harcourt are different. In PHC area, every morning it is very difficult to fly into PHC. That is why you find many airlines not going to PHC before 8 am. Low clouds are there. The more sophisticated instrument landing systems you have, the easier it is for you to land. We have capability to land in zero condition; that is, you don’t see anything. If you are willing to pay for it not only in the equipment but the aircraft must properly be equipped; people have to be trained, power has to be regular at the airport. You have to have perimeter fencing and then you can land in zero-zero. My colleagues will tell you that they can’t land, it is true but you have to pay and I am hoping that some days, our economic activities will make it easier where we can pay for those things. We did these equipment in record time.
