By Daniels Ekugo
Facts are emerging on the recent controversial new minima weather approval for 18 airports by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) as some domestic airline operators condemned the new approval, claiming the new approval is not operational, but, investigations have revealed that the new facilities were actually installed at the designated airports by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
According to sources, none of the local airlines are yet to migrate to the new approval because they are yet to upgrade their onboard facilities to be in tune with the ground facilities, which would make them benefit from the new status.
It was also learnt that only Arik Air for instance has switched to the Performance Based Navigation (PBN), which was jointly approved for operating airlines in the country since 2012 by NCAA and NAMA while three out of the eight local carriers then applied for the switchover.
Some of the airports approved for the minimal weather operations are Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Ilorin, Gombe, Owerri, Sokoto, Uyo, Yola, Dutse, Calabar and Enugu.
With the new approval, the era of flight delays or cancellation as a result of poor weather condition were supposed to be a thing of the past as aircraft should be able to land with even low visibility, but the situation has not abated even though there had been some level of improvements in weather condition across the country.
The approval of 150 and 300 metres Runway Visual Range (RVR) for the 18 airports is a clear departure from the former 800 RVR minimal approved for landing and takeoff for all aircraft operating within the country in the past.
Further investigation indicated that foreign carriers like British Airways, Emirates, Lufthansa and other major carriers operating into the country have tapped into the new minima weather approval by NCAA, which has reduced flight delays, cancellations and flight diversions across the country.
A source close to NAMA told our correspondent over the weekend that the local airlines could not migrate to the new minima weather approval because they lacked proportional equivalent equipment onboard their airplanes for the ground equipment at the 18 airports out of the 32 in the country.
It was further learnt that before the airlines could migrate to the new status, they had to train their pilots and come out with Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to fly into poor visibility airports as approved by NCAA, which they were yet to do.
It was gathered that with the minima weather review, unlike in the past when British Airways for instance would divert its flights to Accra, Ghana due to poor visibility, they now land in Lagos and Abuja with minima weather of 150 metres RVR while the domestic airlines still operate the 800 metres RVR, which was the approval before the new one.
Another source close to NCAA confided in our correspondent that some of the operating airlines actually requested for extension of time before the regulatory agency could announce the new status for the airports, which was turned down by the agency.
The source said: “For instance, the Performance Based Navigation (PBN), which started in 2012 is high tech equipment that reduces fuel consumptions and shortens the distances for them, how many of them have applied for it? Only three of our local airlines applied for it and Arik Air remains the only carrier that operated it. I don’t know if they still do it till date.
“The fact is that the local airlines are not ready to spend money on developmental projects and funny enough, they lie against NAMA and NCAA that the agencies don’t have the required equipment for their operations when in actual fact, they are the ones that have refused to upgrade their facilities to be in tune with the ground facilities at stations and airports.
“The review that NCAA did was based on the fact that NAMA had installed those equipment at the airports. All the major carriers use the equipment and it makes their flights faster. The local airlines asked for extension of time on the minima weather approval, which NCAA turned down. It would have been profitable for them to embrace the new technology, but everything comes with a cost and they don’t want to spend money such.”
One of the airline operators, who preferred to be anonymous, had said that the airlines were yet to record any improvement to their flight operations as a result of the new minima weather approval.
He said: “As far as we are concerned, we have not seen any improvement. The weather is still a big issue for us and we are looking at the magic they want to play. Though, weather has improved in recent week, but we can’t attribute it to the new approval by NCAA.”
But, Mr. Chris Iwarah, the Corporate Communication Manager, Air Peace, said that it was too early to comment on the success or otherwise of the new approval.
He confirmed that before the airline could key into the new status, it had to train its pilots and other technical personnel and expressed willingness for the airline to key into the new status.
He, however, condemned the statement that the airline could not migrate to the new status because their equipment were not in conformity with the ground facilities at the airports.
He said: “I’ve heard in some quarters when some people said that we are not able to migrate to the new approvals because our aircraft don’t have the required equipment onboard. That is very fallacious.
“If we could land within 150 or 300RVR, most of the flights we cancelled in December would not have been cancelled. We are determined to spend any amount of money it will take us to keep our aircraft to the best level it will be for us to operate.”
Also, Mr. Kingsley Ezenwa, the spokesman of Dana Air said the airline would do the needful by training its pilots and implementing other requisite conditions to comply with NCAA guidelines in line with the new review.
“We are a proactive airline. Whatever the requirements are we will review and implement. We constantly train our pilots and this is also a component of their training. It is not about waiting for NCAA to review. We will continue to review where necessary and based on the dynamics,” he said.
However, Mr. Sam Adurogboye spokesman for NCAA, in a report monitor said that the regulatory agency had done its bit by carrying out the review, which was last done in 1984, noting that it was left for the local operators to key into the new review.
He insisted that foreign airlines operating into the country were already taking advantage of the review.