Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Managing Director (MD) Captain Fola Akinkuotu has charged stakeholders in the oil and gas sector to consider the production of aviation fuel (Jet A1) in line with the content development initiative of the Buhari administration.
Akinkuotu, guest speaker at the yearly Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) forum organised by PSRG-Richardson Oil and Gas, held at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos said the call became imperative given the high cost of aviation fuel which costs over 30 per cent of operational cost of airlines.
He said apart from cost, the supply of the product is, sometimes, epileptic, resulting in flight disruptions.
He said the production of Jet A1 in Nigeria would regularise supply, reduce cost which would also translate to lower air fares by airlines.
The NAMA boss, who delivered a paper on the topic “Aviation safety in Nigeria – Challenges, issues and Solutions”, lamented the high cost of aircraft maintenance, which he described as “atrocious because these costs are denominated in dollars.”
He revealed, however, that effort was being made by the Federal Government to set up a Maintenance, Repairs and Operations (MRO) facility “as part of plans to reduce capital flight, lower the times aircraft leave the country for repairs and lower the cost of maintenance.”
On the state of air safety in Nigeria, Akinkuotu said: “The recent pronouncement by the U. S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that Nigeria’s air carriers’ operations are in compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO’s) standards is good news that rekindles hope in the sector.
He said: “ The aviation sector in Nigeria is all together safe as accidents have remained at zero level for six consecutive years with serious or reportable incidents at acceptable levels.”
This, according to him, does not presuppose there are no challenges and issues in the sector which deserve mention and require adequate attention.
Akinkuotu noted that as an airspace manager, NAMA has embarked on the modernisation of airspace infrastructure through the Installation of Instrument Landing System (ILS), Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), Doppler Very High Frequency Omnidirectional radio Range (DVOR) and Wide Area Multi-Lateration (WAM) for low-flying aircraft surveillance and control, even as he revealed that Installation of ILS/DME and DVOR/DME is ongoing in 12 airport locations while CAT III ILS will be completed in Abuja and Lagos before the end of the year.
