The Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, on Thursday in A said that the National Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) will complete the Aeronautical Information Management Project in 11 airports next year.
Sirika made the announcement at the presentation of President Muhammadu Buhari Administration Score Card (2015-2023) in Abuja
“This project is designed to facilitate the automation of our aeronautical information management system.
“It will also provide facilities for voice and data (ground to ground) communication between Air Traffic Control units for coordination of flight movement.
“The project, scheduled for completion in 11 airports by February 2023, will deliver electronic flight planning facilities, electronic flight crew briefing facilities, electronic notice to airmen and electronic aeronautical information publication,” he said.
The minister said that NAMA also implemented a Free Routing Airspace (FRA) in Nigeria in November 2021 in line with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) global priorities to enhance airlines’ recovery after the severe impact of COVID-19.
He said that the implementation of FRA in Nigeria was the first such implementation in the whole of Africa.
“The FRA implementation is designed to allow aircraft to fly the most preferred flight trajectories taking advantage of wind direction and wind speed to fly shorter routes and shorter times within Nigerian airspace.
“This is making significant savings on fuel and CO2 emissions,” Sariaki said.
According to him, the implementation of FRA has provided, in some instances, as much as 10 minutes of flight time savings and hundreds of kilograms of fuel savings.
The minister said that it also reduced pilot workload and enhanced efficiency as well as increased flight operations over the airspace.
According to him, NAMA has since 2015, implemented performance-based navigation for almost all Nigerian airports whether Federal, State, Private or Military.
“NAMA, in collaboration with ICAO, has implemented many Performance Based Navigations (PBN) regional routes for increased connectivity between various destinations across Africa.
“Some of the NAMA achievements included the procurement of a new King Air Beechcraft 350i aircraft for flight calibration in August 2019.
“The successful installation of Category III Instrument Landing Systems at Lagos (RWY 18R) and the successful installation of Instrument Landing System Category III at Abuja (Runway 22).”
According to him, the agency also implemented the Safe Tower Project at Katsina and Zaria in 2019.
“This project provided automated air traffic management systems for enhanced safety and efficiency,” Serika said.
He noted that the system also provided Voice Communication and Control System for air-ground and ground-to-ground communication.
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