The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), says it has began the provision of 24-hour en-route radar service to airspace users at the Kano and Lagos Area Control Centres (ACCs).
This is contained in NAMA’s Monday Memo, a weekly publication of its Public Affairs Department in Abuja.
The publication said that the area radar service, hitherto available only between Mondays and Fridays from 7a.m. to 7 p.m., had been extended to 24 hours daily throughout the week.
The publication quoted Mr Ibrahim Abdulsalam, the Managing Director of NAMA, as saying that the agency achieved the feat due to its resilience and training of its personnel.
“This feat became feasible, following an aggressive manpower training by the agency to boost the capacity of Air Traffic Control and Engineering personnel required to provide the service,’’ he said.
“With this development, we have further enhanced safety and efficiency in air traffic management, because the use of radar increases capacity to maximise utilisation of available airspace with precision and accuracy.
“It will also enhance less workload to the Air Traffic Controllers and flight crew while also enabling aircraft to fly at optimum trajectories, ”the publication said.
Abdulsalam said that the non-stop provision of area radar service was in line with the ongoing digitalisation of the Nigerian airspace by the agency.
Abdulsalam expressed confidence that flight times would be further reduced due to direct routing and translating to reduced fuel consumption by the airlines.
He added that round-the-clock radar surveillance would give a boost to the nation’s preparedness in search and rescue operations.
“It will be recalled that NAMA had on May 30, 2013, successfully commenced the provision of area radar control service within the Nigerian airspace.
“The service was to enable the agency to seamlessly manage en-route flights digitally with efficiency and exactitude’’.
