Binta Bello, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation, has called for an enhanced and strategic collaboration between NAMA and the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) in the management of the nation’s airspace.
Bello spoke at the 2015 Airspace Management Seminar with theme: “Exploiting Airspace Dominance/Ubiquity in Counterterrorism/Counter-insurgency – Roles of UAVs and Radar Coverage”, which held at the Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State, last weekend.
She noted that this kind of collaboration between the civil and military is needed especially now to ensure success in the fight against insurgency, stressing that the deployment of Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) along with other Air Traffic Management technologies by NAMA has greatly enhanced the safety and security of the Nigerian airspace.
Ealier, Ibrahim Abdusalam, managing director of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), he newly deployed Automatic Dependent Surveillance –Contract/ Controller Pilot Data Link Communication (ADS-C/ CPDLC), would also be useful to the NAF.
This technology allows the aircraft to form an automatic position reporting contract with ATC. When enabled, the aircraft will automatically provide data to ATC without further input from the pilots.
NAMA had carried out a successful operational test run of the facility from the Kano Area Control Centre (ACC) at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano two weeks ago.
The Kano test run involved successful log-on and communication with airlines such as KLM flight KLM597, Ethiopian Airlines flight ETH936, Saudi Air flight SVA977, Qatar Air flight QTR771, Air France flight AFR896 and another Air France flight AFR976.
The facility would be commissioned on November 12, 2015, according to the Agency.
Abdusalam pledged the agency’s readiness to support and partner with the military in the area of personnel training within the limits of available resources, promising to fast-track the ratification of Standard Operating Procedures for the operation of UAVs in the Nigerian airspace by the civil and military authorities.
The seminar was attended by representatives from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Army as well as the Nigerian Navy.
Meanwhile, a total of 18 air traffic engineers are to be issued with the Air Traffic Safety Electronics Personnel (ATSEP) License by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
This is just as the air traffic engineers drawn from various airports across the country successfully passed their practical and written examinations conducted recently by the regulatory authority.
Prior to this examination, they had also successfully undergone a three-month ATSEP License Preparatory Course between July and October, 2015, at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria.
