JUST IN: FG airports have approach, landing aids, says NAMA

All federal and state government-owned airports in Nigeria have approach and landing navigational aids, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency has said.

It said Satellite Performance Based Navigation procedures that could enable aircraft operate at any time of the day into these airports were also in place.

The acting Managing Director, NAMA, Matthew Pwajok, disclosed this at the 26th annual conference of the League of Airport and Aviation correspondents in Lagos.

He said the idea of tagging some airports in the country as ‘sunrise’ or ‘sunset airports’ was misplaced.

This, he said, was because almost all airports in Nigeria had instrument landing facilities for approach and landing, which meant that they were operating based on Instrument Flight Rules.

Pwajok said the airports were not operating based on Visual Flight Rules where pilots were required to visually approach and land within sunrise to sunset time.

The NAMA boss said, “Apart from one or two private aerodromes, all federal and state government-owned airports managed by NAMA are equipped with Instrument Landing System.

“The exception is where they are temporarily unserviceable or the runway and approach lights are unserviceable, but nevertheless you cannot refer to them as sunrise or sunset airports.

“Apart from Owerri and Calabar where the agency is working to install Category II Instrument Landing Systems, and Jalingo that has no ILS for now, basically all airports in Nigeria have a minimum of CAT II ILS, most of which were installed brand new. So there is nothing like obsolete navigational facilities.”

Pwajok stated that in a bid to tackle visibility issues in some airports during adverse weather, the agency commenced the implementation of Category III ILS in Abuja and Lagos airports, while those of Katsina, Kano and Port Harcourt were being installed and would be ready before the end of 2022.