NIGERIA MASTERWEB DAILY NEWS

*IATA Submits Geodetic Survey of 4 Nigerian Airports

By Lateef Lawal

The report of the first phase of the World Geodetic Survey [WGS-84] of the country’s Airports carried out for the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency(NAMA) by the International Air Transport Association(IATA) has been completed and submitted to the agency.

According to sources, the full survey reports for the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and Port Harcourt International Airport as well as their Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS) Procedure design(Airspace Concept) have been submitted to the Managing Director of NAMA, Alhaji Ibrahim Auyo.

The actual survey of the four airports (Kano, Lagos, Abuja and P.H) commenced on 29th August, 2009 and ended on 26th September, 2009. The IATA Surveyors were Messrs Mark John Prince and James Reid. NAMA surveyors (Messrs P. Akonti and B. Asifat) worked alongside them for hands-on-training and transfer of competence, as well as to ensure that the survey conformed to specifications. The surveyors left for UK on 28th September for the preparation of the survey report of the four airports completed. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: Port Harcourt International Airport, Nigeria

IATA Surveyors arrived on Thursday, 21st January this year, for the second survey mission to cover 8 - 9 airports as follows: Benin, Osubi, Calabar, Eket, Owerri, Enugu, Ibadan, Akure and Ilorin. As at the time of this report, Benin airport has been fully surveyed as the first in the series.

The military airfields of Kainji and Makurdi as well as some private/state owned airports of Escravos, Akwa Ibom, Gombe, Bebi, are not covered in the contract. It was recommended that the operators of these airports be contacted and advised to take advantage of the on-going process to have their airports surveyed/charted on WGS-84 platform at very reasonable cost.

It could be recalled that the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) in her pursuit of ensuring enhanced safety in the provision of Air Navigation Services, embarked on the World Geodetic Survey WGS-84 of 22 Nigerian Airports. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria.

The advent of Global Navigational Satellite System (GNSS) as a modern trend in air navigation, requires that spatial co-ordinate of terrestrial points be established on an ICAO acceptable International Terrestrial Reference Framework known as WGS-84, and the accuracy requirement in positioning must also be improved to meet the challenges of safe air navigation.

When fully put into operation, pilots in flight will depend more on the satellite to navigate into airports covered by the survey and less on land based navigational aids. The contract was awarded to IATA by NAMA after obtaining necessary approval from the Federal Government at the cost of N360 million on 14th May, 2009. A mobilization fee of 15% amounting to fifty four million naira(N54m) was paid to IATA to commence the survey.

Lateef Lawal ( NigerianAviationNews )

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