To tackle dearth of Controllers:NAMA recruits 100,recalls retired ones

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To tackle dearth of Air Traffic Controllers, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency(NAMA) has recruited one hundred new hands that are now undergoing traini

Tayib Odunowo,MD NAMA

In addition,the Agency has brought back some of the retired ones that are still very strong but caught up with the years of service.

Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency,Mr.Tayib Odunowo stated this while responding to questions posed to him at venue of just concluded 27^th Conference of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents in Lagos.

He said  the challenge NAMA is having now is space constraint in Nigerian College of Aviation Technology,Zaria(NCAT)

To solve this. “we have had an MOU with the Rector of NCAT. So they are going to do a hybrid.”

Odunowo revealed that NAMA is working with the military  which also has a school where they train controllers. They expressed interest in helping us.

“ And then lastly, we are bringing in an organisation to train our controllers to get all their classes of licenses in six months. So, we have a four-point approach that we are working on to quickly close the gap.”, he added.

On where exactly is Nigeria in the multilateration project:”It is 90% completed. It is basically concentrated more in the Delta. That region is the busiest airspace right now in Nigeria.”

“ If you look at the proximity of all the airports, you have all these low flying objects. What NAMA is trying to do is to make sure that anything that flies in the Delta region is picked by the Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS).”

“ But right now, we intend to deploy Multilateration Technology (MLAT) all over Nigeria, starting from the Delta region. Don’t forget even in foreign countries MLAT kind of superimposes your regular radar. So, they actually work hand-in-hand.”

Asked about  SBAS programme, so far, how many people have tried to key in and how has it helped them to actually reduce most of the challenges that they have been having with regards to saving fuel on distance time?

He explained “That is about precision, what SBAS does is that it brings your Ground Based Software (GBS), let assume GBS has a zero, or the tolerance limit of Global Positioning System (GPS), let’s assume it is one foot. When you use SBAS, it brings it down to like two inches. That is really what SBAS does. So, it is a no brainer especially when we are talking about bad weather.”

Responding further,the Managing Director noted “We are talking of harmattan, we are talking about rain, SBAS is a must. Don’t forget we still have challenges with some of our navigational aids. So, it is like a backup for them. All the airlines love it; it saves them money, fuel, and they can fly freely.”