TRACON Introduction Reduced Separation Minima for Aircraft

The introduction of new Air Traffic Management system deployed under the TRACON project by NAMA in addition to the en-route phase of flight enabled reduced separation minima for aircraft, aviation of authority said on Monday.

In air traffic control, according to Wikipedia, separation is the name for the concept of keeping an aircraft outside a minimum distance from another aircraft to reduce the risk of those aircraft colliding, as well as prevent accidents due to wake turbulence. Air traffic controllers apply rules, known as separation minima to do this.

Meanwhile, Mr. Yakubu Dati, spokesperson, Aviation Parastatals, said that the new Air Traffic Management system deployed under the TRACON project by NAMA has improved the safety of the Nigerian airspace exponentially.

Before July 2011, he noted, the TRACON project was completed with approach radar control in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port-Harcourt but by 2013, Area Radar commenced in Lagos and Kano ACCs. This has significantly increased airspace capacity for the Nigerian aviation industry.

“The introduction of the terminal radar control in addition to the en-route phase of flight enabled reduced separation minima for aircraft, thus, helping airlines save on flight times and fuel consumption which has significantly reduced their operational cost in return.

“Before July 2011, control tower solar power for navigational aids was unavailable. However, 11 control towers have been successfully deployed and 6 navigational aids was made available in 2013. There is also the AIS Automation which was not implemented before July 2011 but is on-going and has reached 65% completion as at October 2013,” he said.

Dati, explained that in addition to the ample transformation, the WGS-84 survey which was on-going for years has been completed with 22 airports surveyed and GNSS procedure drawn for Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt airports.

“Through the TRACON project in 2013, a major milestone was also recorded in search and rescue. This development was enhanced through the real-time radar playback which was made available through the TRACON project,” he said.

He added that most of this achievements recorded were as a result of the Aviation Master Plan otherwise known as the Aviation Road Map, a driving, concept created by the Aviation Minister.