Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) is taking quick steps to end flight disruptions occasioned by harmattan or inclement weather as it set to install multi-million dollar Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) in 11 airports across the country.
The Managing Director of NAMA, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu made the disclosure stated that the Federal Government had made an order and contracts for 11 airfield ILS.
He admitted that visibility at many of the aerodromes are bad but assured that with operable ILS to go to the aerodromes, “Come December this year, there should be no excuse of them not landing in harmattan.”
Among the airports to benefit from the critical safety tools are those in Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Ibadan, Benin, Abuja and Minna among others apart from Kaduna which has brand new safety tools.
He said, there are 11 ILSs that are going to be installed adding that they are brand new equipment.
Although, Akinkuotu was silent on the cost of the instrument, aggregating the numbers from several quarters, getting a Category II/III system up and running these days would cost at least $3 million per runway, plus at least $10, 000 or so per year just to keep it certified.
Many airports use ILS to guide pilots to land, especially in horrible weather conditions. But the snag really is on landing aids. Only very few airports out of the 24 airports in Nigeria have airfield lighting and ILS.
There have been efforts made over the years to install airfield lighting at some airports in the country but such efforts end woefully as they were usually followed by scandals of huge sums of money diverted by government officials.
Experts said items to be considered include the cost of installing power lines and control cables, where required; the cost of site grading or landfill; the cost of the antenna support (concrete slab versus elevated platform); and the cost of constructing site access roads.
They stated that the exact location of the array should be the least costly site consistent with the required level of service.
The NAMA boss explained that there are two basic sets of costs associated with an ILS: installation costs, purchase of equipment, site surveying and preparation and upkeep costs.
“People forget that the latter doesn’t simply mean keeping the system in good repair; it also carries with it the requirement to regularly inspect the system to ensure it is operating within proper tolerances. The localiser provides guidance in lateral dimension on the lateral plain. Cooling is essential for this component,” he added.
He further stated that the existence of the system would help to improve seamless flight operations during bad weather, reiterating that airplanes can land in zero visibility as long as they have corresponding equipment on-board their airplanes.
“What it means is that there would be all year flying in this place irrespective whether it is dust haze or early morning mist; I can guarantee you can do all year round flights in this place. The challenges in Port-Harcourt are different.
In Port-Harcourt, every morning, it is very difficult to fly into Port-Harcourt airport; that is why you find many airlines not going to Port-Harcourt before 8 am. Low clouds are there. The more sophisticated instrument landing systems you have, the easier it is for you to land”.
“We have capability to land in zero condition; that is, you don’t see anything. If you are willing to pay for it not only in the equipment but the aircraft must properly be equipped; people have to be trained, power has to be regular at the airport”, he stated
Between November last year and January this year, virtually all airlines did their full operations due to inclement weather in virtually all parts of the country.
Harmattan haze disrupts flight operations in Nigeria. In Nigeria, during Harmattan season, many flights are delayed, diverted or cancelled due to bad weather conditions; whereas airlines still fly at the height of winter in Europe.
Experts said modern aircraft have been built to land at zero visibility with corresponding landing aides, stressing that harmattan haze lowers visibility below sometimes-acceptable weather minima, depending on the airport.
But never a time does it spread full darkness on the horizon or spread a sheet of dark fogs in the atmosphere, but each airline has its minimum acceptable visibility level, below which the airline could cancel flights.