The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) is set to begin test run of the first phase of its automated Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) and the test run will cover the country and to begin October this year.
Engineer Ifeanyi Nwankwo, director, Safety Electronics and Engineering Services (DSEES) NAMA, while speaking on the level of work on the installation said that the first phase of AIS automation which would be made up of 10 stations would come alive at the end of October this year.
According to him, all the international airports, (class A airports) ten in number including NIMET, NEMA and NCAA at a stretch . “We are taking ten of them at a stretch, so by the end of October, the first phase would have been worked on and will add value to the system. Before the year runs out, another ten will come on board”
Nwankwo explained that the remaining six would be those in the remote stations which would be very important as it would help the agency to extend its VHF coverage further than it supposed to be.
He DSEES hinted on the benefits of the AIS automation to include-taking care of flight information, planning, and movement of aircraft which were hitherto carried out manually.
“Issues like check-in will be automated because the airlines are expected to subscribe into the AIS automation project, it will provide the airlines backbone to install the self check in equipment, which means that the airlines will not need to install also their own gadgets to be able to do their operations”, Nwakwo noted.
He also The Director explained that the automation would boost audio and data communications in the system and at the end airlines would discover that they would be paying less than what they were paying to run it on their own system.
He assured that no staff would be relieved of his/her duty with the implementation of the automation adding that the agency was in need of young personnel to be trained on the job as the department was short starved.
Nwankwo added that NAMA envisaged the challenges of power failure and security maintaining that a hybrid solar station has been put in place for the equipment by the agency. In addition, NAMA engineers are expected to monitor stations from time to time but needed security to do so.
He explained that international airlines have already shown interest in embracing the automation as it will add value to their operations in the country and called on domestic airlines to avail themselves of the opportunity of the automation.
