The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) yesterday cried out over the deplorable state of Navigational Aids at airports around the country which makes flying in the Nigerian airspace virtually impossible during the harmattan season.
AON lamented the increasing sufferings of passengers and distruption of operators’ schedules and plans for the yuletide season due to flight cancellations.
Chairman of the union, Capt. Nogie Meggison who made its position known yesterday at his Lagos office noted that exactly 48 years on December 28, 1968, the first aircraft operated at CAT lll and landed in zero visibility at Heathrow Airport, while it is still impossible to land aircraft with visibility of about 800m in Nigeria.
The AON President pointed out that most international and local flights had to be diverted to Cotonou on Tuesday, adding that the issue of the harmattan haze is a yearly seasonal occurrence as Nigeria has mainly raining (Thunderstorms) and dry seasons (Harmattan).
“If the world has been landing in zero or virtually no visibility since December 28, 1968, today 48 years later on December 28, 2016 on the anniversary of the first CAT III landing at Heathrow airport, Nigeria still can’t land with 800meters of visibility? Why are the Navigation aids not working or upgraded over the years? Why is there no solution to this issue after forty years of the airlines crying out?
“It is rather shameful that today in the 21st Century, we are still talking of operating at CAT l and unable to land at 800m at our airports,” the airline operator said.
According to Meggisson, for the past three days, MMA in Lagos was shut down until 6pm before flights could land; hence no airline could fly and passengers were delayed, with colossal loss of revenue to the operators.
He recalled that a DANA Air flight that departed Abuja at 10am could not land in Lagos and had to return to Abuja until 6pm before flying back again still leaving about 500 to 600 passengers to various destinations stranded at the airport.
“This is very unfair to operators who cannot charge passengers for the extra cost the airline has to bear on return or cancelled flights and we have to feed and lodge them in a hotel. NAMA and FAAN need to be more responsible to ensure that our airports are equipped with the right landing aids to allow 24 hours operations in any weather condition,” Meggison stressed.
He also said that AON has been screaming about this situation for a long time now. ‘‘The economic impact is too heavy on us,50% of scheduled flights are delayed due to weather, shortage of Jet fuel, inadequate screening machines at the Terminal Boarding exit points, insufficient parking for airplanes on the tarmac, as well as VIP movement etc.
“It is also instructive to note that the overstaffed agencies have over 18,000 staff servicing 3000 airline staff. FAAN alone has about 11,000 staff and NAMA has 4000 staff with only 250 Air Traffic Controllers. According to the Minister of State for Aviation, a particular agency has about 48 General Managers.
‘‘The huge funds made from passengers’ 5% taxes on Ticket Sales Charge (TSC); Passenger Service Charge (PSC), Over Flight Charges, Enroute Navigational Charges and Terminal Charge, Landing Fee and Parking Charges are being used wrongly to pay for salaries and the lavish lifestyle of the over bloated workforce at the expense of improving the navigation and airport infrastructure,” he said.
“The relevant agencies need to invest in modern navigation aids and runway lights so that we don’t have to come back again next year complaining about the same thing as we have done for so many decades.
“Also, the planned concession of airports might be a way forward, provided it is transparent and with a clear agenda, as the concessionaire would make sure these landing aids are in place,” he said.
