It is a new dawn for Nigeria's Airspace-Engr. Udoh

Engineer Mazi Nnamdi Udoh ,Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the agency saddled with the responsibility of  ensuring airspace safety hosted some aviation journalists at his office in Lagos during which he shed lights on issues relating to air safety and the celebrated  master plan for the aviation sector that promises  a brighter future for the country. 

 

Excerpts :

What is the latest on communication in the airspace?

Nobody is talking about NITEL anymore, everybody is on GSM but you know every communication is based on an atmospheric level or the satellite based own. GSM is satellite based and the reason why we have engineers is to address the communication surveillance and navigational problems.As we speak today, total Very High Radio Frequency (VHF) coverage of Nigeria is available. Of course, if there is power failure, someone will fix it, if there is frequency deficiency, someone will fix it. For instance, how would anybody expect that a brand new airplane that belongs to airbus would crash? So we are fully confident that the 1273, which is the Southern frequency and the 1209, which is the Northern frequency based in Sokoto and Maiduguri once in a while will not have power let's say in one week or two. Your report will run like crash. Not only that, the attack at the airport in Maiduguri, the bomb, the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON), we have seen the TRACON and the governor has donated a generator and now we have now re-opened the airport.

During those periods, those challenges arise and it affected us. It is not a quest it is not available so lets say between Jos and Yola nobody talked to you, you then blamed it on power failure. Communication has been conquered, we can only be improving

What should we expect from the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) in 2014 in view of the recently unveiled industry master plan?

The aviation industry is moving in the right direction. We are making progress with the vision put in place by the current minister of aviation, who has assembled a team of experts and consultants to design a robust master plan for the industry. We have a roadmap, so the roadmap must be the compass to direct how the development of the industry will go.

There is no other road than the one that is in the map and in 2014. What we should expect is more improvement in terms of air navigation services and other components of air safety in Nigeria. In order words, what we have done is to build more on it. What we are battling with right now in 2014 is to make sure that every airline can file their flight plans online.

The electronic generation of a flight plan will go a long way to make flight operations in Nigeria seamless. That is what is obtainable in other parts of the world.

How are the airlines reacting to the electronic flight plan initiative?

The airlines are demonstrating compliance, because it is the way to go. They have also requested that we should try and centralise the process of flight planning. The whole idea is to make flying seamless.

The system works very well. If you file flight plan, you pay, then someone takes it to the control tower and then we have to go and intervene between Aeronautical Information Service Centre (AIS), with the commercial unit and also with the tower. So when you pay in Lagos; say you are going to Owerri, the man in Owerri will not ask you for a hard copy of the flight plan.

If an airline is filing flight plan, you go to NAMA portal first and file your flight plan, every airline will go to NAMA portal first and file its flight plan. This has changed the old way of doing it and the airlines know they are all used to the hard paper kind of thing .That is one major thing that we are doing.

What other project is NAMA working on this year?

We are working hard on how to resolve the challenge of power supply. We need to try and go back and improve the power situation. We had thought that by now, power improvement from the primary source will be a thing of the past. Sadly, it has not improved.

We are trying to go back to the solar system to try and bring more of it, even for the Air Field Lighting (AFL) to help us to generate power and finally the communication and surveillance, which we have firmly established with basic infrastructure. We are going further in the wide area of augmentation itself through the Automatic Data Surveillance Broadcast (ADSB) , which we call ADSB and the multi-lateration system for the Niger Delta . These are the concepts and projects we are working on to improve air safety. It is a going concern and we will continue to strive to improve the system.

A few years ago NAMA introduced a one shop payment platform to enhance and harmonise its revenue, what is the level of compliance of airlines and other service users?

This is perhaps one of the best things that has happened in the aviation industry. The airlines are complying and it has improved our revenue collection system for the agencies. As a customer driven agency the interest of airlines is crucial to us. That is why we constantly engage them to get feedback in our services. Well you know in treating customers like the airlines, we listen to their complaints.

How is NAMA handling the recent complaint by some operators over the newly introduced and increased navigational charges?

I think it is the issue of harmonization of charges. The matter is being resolved. A committee was set to examine the matter. You know they went to the Senate, now the committee has met and they have finalised the report.

Now we are now going to call them to another broader meeting. But take for example, a place like Akure or Ibadan, where there is no general aviation activity and as such when they use the facilities, they won't want to pay that kind of general aviation terminal kind of payment.

There are peculiar issues and cases that are being examined concerning payment of charges in some airports by general aviation or charter airlines. We are also buying into that so that when we go to such an airport it is not necessary that you will pay special charges.

Our position is that when you pay in a one stop shop, the issue of how many flights and which leg of the flight will be sorted out. There are issues concerning the modality of payment for some category of flight, which is captured in the manifest.

For instance, some operators, who want to go to places like Ibadan, Akure, Minna, where there are no much activities and but there are general aviation terminals, they will not be able to pay the general aviation terminal airport fee and of course airlines or operators like say Julius Berger, aircraft owned by governors, who don't use that aircraft for hire and reward will also not pay what is called commercial tax but of course there must be a commensurate insurance file with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA) to show that this airplane is not hire and reward, so those persons will not pay any fee.

What is NAMA doing in the area of training of technical personnel?

Presently, we are just trying to graduate the next class of personnel that we sent for training .They are about three of them, they are doing what is called flying hours completion for Air Traffic Controllers(ATC) Personnel .There are completing hours on the simulator. We have also done an internal advert that people with science and technology background, including information technology knowledge, who like to be Air Traffic Controllers can also apply and it is mainly for people who want to change into Air Traffic Services.

We are still training the engineers. The last batch of the five years maintenance arrangement with the manufacturers is going to be finalised this year with the last 12 engineers .We will now start sending them to South Africa and any other places where there is a cadre module for engineering training, of course the regular ones in navigational aids or Air Field Lighting (AFL) will remain.

Our budget for training remains wide and as you know, you can't spend everything on training and you cannot also have everything you want to have. First, as you know, NAMA survives on its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

For manpower and development, we are spending like N500 million this year and we wish we can even spend more because training is very critical to us at all times. I have mentioned the solar AFL that is already in order.

How are aviation agencies handling the collection of charges?

Let me tell you, the five per cent Ticket Sales Charge(TSA) that you pay as airlines, the airlines pay it into an account domicile in NCAA and the director general of NCAA has the responsibility to sign the sharing as it is approved by the accounting officer that is the minister and the permanent secretary, percentages are shared between NAMA, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria(FAAN), Accident Investigation and Prevention Bureau(AIPB), Nigerian College of Aviation Technology(NCAT) and Nigeria Meteorological Agency(NIMET).

AIPB does not make money, you know NCAT does not make more money from their training fees and you also know that NIMET is also part of this group, so you could see that the direct contact with the airline is NAMA but NCAA is collecting the money. Now, on this airline or anybody, who flies come to NAMA to file flight plan before anything happens at all and if they are coming from abroad, their agents come to NAMA to get the clearance so that they could come. Government decided that what is the point if the man lands, three people will go and meet him; I am from FAAN, I am from NAMA, I am from NCAT and with that, corruption comes in. Now we chose one umbrella, for instance NIMET comes to the international airport at the third floor, where flight plan are done and they collect their meteorological folder there.

NAMA collect this money and we agreed as agencies to do so. FAAN now gets his landing, NCAA gets, NAMA gets, NCAT gets, NIMET and AIPB get. That is one fund that everybody gets something and it is done because most general aviation movement are mostly VIPs and you know when the man parks in Akure somebody will say let me see your paper and you know there was an issue not quite long, so that is the kind of things that we are trying to avoid.

The Senate directed that NAMA and airlines should harmonize charges .What is the latest on the matter?

You know the Senate said that it has not been briefed enough so we should go and harmonise and like I have always said, the customer will always be right. The more airlines I have in Nigeria, the better for me. I don't want to slam those who owe me not to fly even from West African. Cameroon airlines came to pay because they wanted to start flying over our space. I don't believe that we have to ground an airline. Some owe and they are here and we know them .So outside that one stop shop, there will always be a better solution anytime any day. When you pay the money nobody will ask you any question because there is linkage between the agencies and the means of payment.

When will NAMA complete the installation of new equipment in the Niger Delta region?

In the Niger Delta for this year, we have finished the survey, we have gotten the report and we want to deploy ADSB and multi-lateration. They all come under wide area of augmentation system. Now we would need this around Maiduguri and Yola airport because of security issue.