The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has concluded plans to review navigational charges extended to local carriers utilising its en route facilities.
NAMA, it was learnt, has been collecting N11, 000 as navigational charges for aircraft criss-crossing the airspace for flights.
Air navigation charges are for the use of the airspace and service. They vary, depending on the distance, route, weight, and type of aircraft, as well as the regulations and agreements of each authority.
It also includes en route approach and terminal navigational charges for air traffic advisory services rendered by air traffic controllers to the aircraft pilots.
Local carriers, as at 2008, were charging N16,000 for a one-way ticket.
With more investment in airspace navigation, surveillance and communication equipment, the redesign of airspace routing and other costs – gulping expenditure, the old rates, a source said is no longer sustainable.
Investigations by The Nation indicated that 16 years after, the push to review the charges is becoming compelling as the airspace agency management aligns its cost-recovery strategy with the macroeconomic realities and other challenges confronting the air travel space.
Citing an incremental spike in air fares over the last 16 years, a source close to the agency said it is unrealistic navigational charges to domestic carriers not to change with the fare regime of N150,000 charged on some local routes.
Though new charges are yet to be unveiled by the airspace agency, its officials, local airlines’ body; Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), and industry regulator are still meeting to reach a consensus.
Its Managing Director/Chief Executive, Umar Farouk, in an interview confirmed the resolve to raise charges.
He said it was the outcome reached at a recent aviation stakeholders’ meeting convened by the NCAA.
The NAMA boss said: “There was a meeting of aviation stakeholders that was convened by the NCAA. I raised the issue with airline operators, advancing reasons the decision is due for implementation. Since 2008, the navigation charge has been the same.
“At that time in 2008, the charge was N11,000 when airfare was N16,000.They have been reviewing the air ticket and today, the fare is about N150,000 per flight, we are still charging N11,000. I think it is unfair and any time you draw their attention to it, they do not want us to review it.
“We are a cost-recovery agency and the huge investment we are making to make sure that safety is not compromised. It is high time the airlines accepted the reality.We are going to review our navigational charges to match the current economic situation.
“That is where we are. We have written to the Ministry and when it is time to do that, we will call for stakeholders meeting so that we let them know and give them time to prepare and adjust to the new charges.”
He spoke of plans by the agency to access a N40 billion Federal Government intervention, which is expected to resolve a long-time infrastructure gap.
Farouk said the agency is working hard to tackle the challenge of radio communication in the Nigerian airspace.
He said: ”Before now, most of the airlines avoided Nigerian airspace and they found it extremely difficult to communicate with air traffic controllers; the reason was that the communication system was weak, and over-saturated due to demand. As the industry is growing, you should expect more routes to open and there is no corresponding facility to match the emerging air traffic.
“So, what we did was to cause a huge investment in that regard by the Federal Government. We realised that there were so many openings, so many routes, we had to increase more stations to have signals that would cover the entire Nigeria.”
He said the agency is working diligently to solve the problem by redesigning the airspace communication architecture for efficient radio coverage.
Farouk affirmed: “The entire communication had been re-designed to make sure that everywhere, every blind spot is covered.”
Besides the radio communication challenge, the NAMA boss said the agency is struggling to navigate through the challenges of electricity supply.
He said :” Our challenge now has to do with electricity. That is why I declared an emergency on power supply.Though , it has been a national issue for decades and has defied solutions, the government is still working hard to ensure it gets it right.
“What we have decided to do is to deploy solar energy to some of these facilities so that they can function well. We have two sources of power. We have the primary one which is the national grid and we have the second one which is generators and the third one is solar. We deployed all these three because the International Civil Aviation Organisation frowns at a situation where you have a blackout even for seconds; so, we make sure that have an uninterrupted power supply.
“Recently, the Minister of Aviation , approached the Presidency for intervention and N40 billion was budgeted but we are yet to access the money. As soon as it is done, we will be able to tackle safety critical challenges that are before us.
“If we get this N40 billion Presidential Intervention, I am telling you that in the next few months, we will be able to conquer these challenges.”
He also spoke on efforts to address the challenge of shortage of technical manpower in the airspace agency saying the Federal Government is calibrating mechanisms to put closure to the matter.
Farouk said : “ We don’t have enough air traffic controllers. The challenge is still there. The mistake of the past administration; there was no proper manpower auditing or proper planning. It takes time to train air traffic controllers and they are quite aware of this it has gone on for many years .
“Now that we decided to recruit them, it takes more than one year to train air traffic controllers that will be on the hot seat. You can imagine the gap and we can’t train hundreds of them. It takes time to get the number required. That is the challenge we are having. We are working toward making sure that that aspect is addressed.”
He said the agency is also collaborating with the Federal Government to retool the airspace agency with modern navigation and surveillance equipment for efficient delivery of services.
But, the mandate has been constrained by paucity of funds.
He said :” If you go to navigational aids, we are also having obsolete facilities. For an average electronic system, the lifespan is about ten years. Most of these electronics have been working for the past 15-20 years. You will expect the performance to be below the standard.
“We are replacing them; we have commenced replacement of all these facilities. If not for funding, we would have finished replacing all of them.
But for now, we have done almost 80 per cent but the contractors are still working .The Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria is having serious challenges. I will categorically tell you that since 2014, we have not had enough spare parts. “The cost of spares is the issue and the obsolete state of the equipment.
The FEC has approved the modernization of the TRACON system. 15 percent of the fund has been paid and we are hopeful when the team from Thales , France commence installation as soon as other things are put in place. We are hopeful that at the end of it, at least the system will go back to optimal performance.”
