As the harmattan season kicks-off with its typical dust haze which impairs visibility, the poor instrumentation of the country’s airports will again come into focus.
Of Nigeria’s 26 airports, only five have Instrument Landing Systems (ILS), meaning that aircraft cannot fly in and out of them in poor weather conditions.
An Instrument Landing System (ILS) is a highly accurate radio signal navigation aid consisting of two antennas which transmit signals to receivers in the aircraft cockpit—a glide path tower located next to the runway at the northern end and a localiser antenna at the southern end, creating a machine vision which allows aircraft to land and take-off without the pilot’s visual support.
The lack of ILS comes at a huge cost to airlines operating in Nigeria, especially the domestic carriers, as most of the airports without ILS are those mostly used by the said domestic carriers.
Noggie Meggisson, Chairman of AON, said flying during the harmattan season in the Nigerian airspace is always difficult because pilots may not see clearly to navigate the airspace. This he says results in flight delays and cancellations.
According to Meggisson, this increases the sufferings of passengers and disrupts their plans for the festive season.
He noted that about 48 years ago, on December 28, 1968, the first aircraft operated at CAT lll and landed in zero visibility at Heathrow airport and that yet, Nigeria is mostly unable to land aircraft with visibility of about 800 metres.
Meggisson said: “Most international and local flights had to be diverted to Cotonou, during the hamattan season last year, which is rather unfortunate. The issue of the harmattan haze is a yearly seasonal occurrence as Nigeria has mainly rainy (thunderstorms) and dry seasons (harmattan).
BusinessDay’s checks show that during the harmattan season, which typically last from November to January, a lot of flights are cancelled, while others are diverted to alternate airports, costing airlines and travellers untold losses and distress.
An airline source who craved anonymity, told BusinessDay that airports with operational ILS in Nigeria, are international airports such Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, Abuja and Enugu airports.
The source says lack of funding is the reason that most airports do not have instrument landing systems.
However, Fola Akinkuotu the Managing Director of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has called for training of Nigerian pilots on the technologies adopted for airspace management in the country, as the harmattan approaches.
IFEOMA OKEKE
