The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) says the agency is working to install Category II Instrument Landing systems (CAT II ILS) in Owerri and Jalingo Airports that have no ILS presently.
The agency’s Acting Managing Director, Mr Lawrence Pwajok made this known in a statement issued in Lagos on Monday.
Pwajok noted that all airports in the country had a minimum of CAT II ILS, most of which were installed brand new and so there was nothing like obsolete navigational facilities.
NAMA boss said it had invested heavily on navigational facilities more than any other facilities to ensure aircraft operate at any time of the day into airports both government and state owed.
He said: “Apart from one or two private aerodromes, all the federal and state government owned airports managed by NAMA are equipped with Instrument Landing System (ILS).
“This is except where they are temporarily unserviceable or the Runway and Approach lights are unserviceable, but nevertheless you cannot refer to them as sunrise or sunset airports.”
Pwajok frowned on the idea of tagging some airports as “sunrise” or “sunset airports”, given that almost all airports in Nigeria had instrument landing facilities for approach and landing.
He explained that they were operating based on Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) and not based on Visual Flight Rules (VFR) where the pilots were required to visually approach and land within Sunrise to Sunset time.
Explaining further, the NAMA boss disclosed that it had commenced the implementation of Category III ILS in Abuja and Lagos airports to tackle visibility issues in some airports during adverse weather.
According to him, while Katsina, Kano and Port Harcourt Airports have been installed and will be ready before the end of 2022.
In the area of search and rescue services, the he assured airlines that the agency would provide the service during the hours of extension.
On how the agency was managing the single runway operation in Lagos as a result of ongoing repairs at runway 18 Left, Pwajok said it developed contingency procedures for a single runway operation.
“This is against the two runways, and the installation of lighting at the runway will complement the CAT II ILS installed there to bring about 24-hour operation and also serve as backup for the international runway (18 Right).
“It is very important that we address this issue of domestic runway 18 Left which has been in the dark for 20 years.
“It is a difficult thing for the airlines, pilots and air traffic controllers, but we are coping with it, knowing that that is the only way we can increase operating capacity of the airport when we have two functional runways,” he said.
