The Federal Government through the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has clarified that all Federal and State Government owned airports in the country have approach and landing navigational aids.
In addition, it said the airports, about 25 of them have Satellite Based Performance Based Navigation procedures that can enable aircraft operate at any time of the day into these airports.
Ag. Managing Director of NAMA, Matthew Lawrence Pwajok stated this as a panel discussant at the 26th annual conference of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) in Lagos.
He noted that the idea of tagging some airports in the country as “sunrise” or “sunset airports” was misplaced “given that almost all airports in Nigeria have instrument landing facilities for approach and landing, meaning they are operating based on Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) and not based on Visual Flight Rules (VFR) where the pilots are required to visually approach and land within Sunrise to Sunset time.”
In addition, the NAMA boss said the agency had developed contingency plan for the Murtala Muhammad International Airport (MMIA) after the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) shuts down the domestic runway for the installation of airfield lighting.
According to Pwajok, “apart from one or two private aerodromes, all federal and state government owned airports managed by NAMA are equipped with Instrument Landing System (ILS), except where they are temporarily unserviceable or the Runway and Approach lights are unserviceable, but nevertheless you cannot refer to them as sunrise or sunset airports.”
Speaking further, the NAMA boss noted that the agency had invested heavily on navigational facilities more than any other facilities, adding that, “apart from Owerri and Calabar where the agency is working to install Category II Instrument Landing systems (CAT II ILS), and Jalingo that has no instrument landing system for now, basically all airports in Nigeria have a minimum of CAT II ILS, most of which were installed brand new, so there is nothing like obsolete navigational facilities.”
Pwajok said in a bid to tackle visibility issues in some airports during adverse weather, the agency commenced the implementation of Category III ILS in Abuja and Lagos airports while those of Katsina, Kano and Port Harcourt were being installed and would be ready before the end of 2022.
He noted that despite the high cost of diesel, the agency had always granted extended services to airlines who made such requests and will continue to do so.
On how the agency was managing the single runway operation in Lagos as a result of ongoing repairs at runway 18 Left, he said the operation was “strenuous” at the beginning but a contingency plan had been developed to make operation seamless.
He said, “It has been very strenuous but it is also something that we have done before in Lagos when the international runway itself was closed and we had to use the local runway, shorter one.
“We developed new procedures, developed contingency plans and we work collaboratively with sister agencies and the operators. It has been strenuous but we are doing it and we are doing it well at the moment.”
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