NAMA: Lagos, Abuja airports to automate aircraft sequencing to avoid delays

Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) says it will complete automation of aircraft sequencing this year at the Lagos and Abuja airports.

Matthew Pwajok, the acting managing director of NAMA, disclosed this in Abuja in an interview with NAN.

According to him, the project would reduce delays caused by the manual method used by air traffic controllers.

Sequencing is the act by which an air controller orders aircraft in a traffic pattern or numbers aircraft for landing.

Air traffic controllers in the tower monitor takeoffs, landings and ground traffic with visual and radar tools.

“At the moment, what we do is that the air traffic controller uses his judgment to determine which aircraft comes first,” he said. 

“But automated systems are detecting the speed of an aircraft, the performance and the direction the aircraft is coming from and will now have an air traffic controller to sequence them on arrival.

“We are implementing that in Lagos and Abuja, and hopefully, by this year, this project will be completed as it is one of our key projects.”

Pwajok also explained that a total radar coverage that was commissioned over ten years ago by former President Goodluck Jonathan needed an upgrade. 

Total radar coverage is an initiative towards enhancing civil and military surveillance of aircraft operating in the Nigerian airspace.

He said the federal government had approved N28 billion for the upgrade of the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON).

According to him, the project is located in nine locations, including Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Ilorin, Obubra in Cross Rivers, Maiduguri, Talata-Mafara in Kebbi and Numan in Adamawa. 

“These equipment provide a complete coverage of Nigeria on radar, so aircraft flight within the country are seen and controlled by air traffic controllers in the radar,” he said.

“So, the equipment are being upgraded to be in line with global standards and also in line with the expectations of increased traffic volume and increased requirement for safety and efficiency of flight.

“So this project is currently ongoing, and we are doing a survey movement radar and ground control at Lagos and Abuja that will provide surface guidance for aircraft.” 

He said once they are upgraded, surveillance control from departure gate to arrival gate that would be fully automated.