Capt. Fola Akinkuotu
Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has advocated an enhanced
synergy among Flight Information Regions (FIRs) within the African and
Indian Ocean Region (AFI Region) as this would further improve the
safety profile of the region.
Managing Director of the agency, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, recently at a
five-day Air Traffic System Investigator Workshop in Lagos, said NAMA on
its part would strive towards building regional bridges in order to
keep pace with latest trends, especially in air traffic management in a
dynamic aviation industry.
Akinkuotu said such regional cooperation becomes more compelling with
the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) goal of
entrenching harmony and seamlessness in every facet of International
Civil Aviation.
While commending ICAO for availing Nigeria the opportunity to host
the workshop, Akinkuotu said the benefits of the meeting are enormous as
“the workshop would provide participants with knowledge and skills of
Air Traffic System (ATS), incident reporting and investigation
especially for operational personnel of Air Navigation Service Providers
such as NAMA.”
Speaking further, the NAMA boss said: “The quality of air navigation
services, particularly air traffic services has been subjected to
integrity tests going by the streams of Air Safety Reports received from
our airspace users.
“However, the quality of incidents investigation on the other hand
should impact positively on the corrective action plan that would
minimise future re-occurrence, in a just culture environment, which is
the essence of this workshop.”
Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, who was
represented by the Director of Aerodrome and Airspace Standards,
Mohammed Odunowo, added that global economic and demographic statistics
indicated that Africa would experience significant increase in
population, expansion in economic activities, as well as increased
demand for air transport services in the near future.
Odunowo said: “While the above trend indicates great potentials and
opportunities for the African economy as well as aviation sector, it
also places immense responsibility on relevant aviation authorities
towards the enhancement of Air Traffic Management capacity, efficiency
and safety performance.”
