The federal government has approved the installation of Category Three Instrument Landing System (Cat 3 ILS) in three airports across the country.
The airports are the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Port Harcourt International Airport and Katsina Airport.
The installation of the Cat 3 ILS which allows aircraft landing under zero weather visibility, according to the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), would be done this year, making it five airports, including Lagos and Abuja.
The Managing Director (MD) of NAMA, Capt Fola Akinkuotu, disclosed this at the weekend when he hosted members of the Senate Committee on Aviation led by its Chairman, Smart Adeyemi, who were on an oversight visit to the agency.
Capt Akinkuotu said the Cat 3 ILS had already been installed at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, adding that the federal government had approved the next phase of installation in the three airports. According to him, NAMA had in recent times made frantic effort to improve on landing and navigational facilities for safe flight operations.
He further said the agency had also installed Doppler Voice Very High-Frequency Omni-Directional Range (DVOR) in Kano, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Maiduguri, Jos, Ibadan and Yola to aid navigation.
The MD, however, called for more funding to protect the assets by fencing them, disclosing that there had been instances of vandalisation in Port Harcourt, Enugu and Owerri.
In his remarks, Sen Adeyemi called for improved welfare for aviation workers to improve on safety, saying safety started from motivating the workers who were directly in charge of ensuring safety in the system.
