NAMA streamlines airspace coordination procedures

In line with its determination to provide seamless air navigation services and also enhance safety of air travel within the nation’s airspace, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has facilitated the signing of letters of procedures between Kano Area Control Centre (ACC) and Abuja Approach Control Unit (APC) on the one hand, and between Lagos ACC and Port Harcourt APC on the other.

The letters of procedures, which spell out the condition under which the responsibility for provision of air traffic services shall be shared between the parent ACC and the subordinate Approach Control Units, also specify flow control procedures during periods of congestion, just as it specify procedures to follow in the event of total or partial communication failure between air traffic control services unit and an aircraft, among others.

Speaking during the signing of the letters of procedures by Air Traffic Operations Managers (ATOMs) from the four major airports of Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt at the agency’s headquarters in Lagos, on Monday, Ifeanyi Okwor, general manager, Air Traffic Control Operations, said the signing “was informed by recent changes in the structure of the airspace, like extension of en-route radar service to 24 hours daily and other changes that we have effected lately.

“We need to capture all these changes in the Letters of Procedures, especially as it has to do with the operational relationship between parent ACCs and the subordinate APCs, as an ICAO requirement targeted at enhancing seamlessness and safety in air traffic management.”