Members of the National Association of Air Traffic Engineers (NAAE) have decried the absence of spare parts to service navigational aids (navaids) and equipment at airports across the country.
NAAE National President, Ebenezer Makanjuola, said this has affected the performance of equipment at airports.
“Our greatest challenge today is spare parts, spare parts for our navigational equipment, communications equipment; and we are facing this because of the lacuna in the system.
“The government is aware of it and they are doing something about it,” he disclosed at the 33rd NAAE Day celebration in Lagos.
Makanjuola acknowledged that there can never be a perfect system hence there are professionals to attend to problems.
“If there is no failure, there won’t be engineers. On December 14, 2014 in the United Kingdom the whole system failed and they called off all flights. Nobody should premise what is happening on the engineers or equipment.”
He appealed to the government to expedite action on the clearance of aeronautical information service equipment (AIS) at the Lagos Port for installation.
“AIS automation would have started long ago but for the bureaucracy in the system. We are appealing to the government to expedite action on the AIS project.”
Makanjuola disclosed that there has not been any accident in the past 25 years traceable to the negligence of air traffic engineers.
He said over 20 engineers will retire this year from the Nigerian Aerospace Management Authority (NAMA) but there is no cause for alarm as the management has been training people to take over from ageing professionals.
“The gap will not be too much felt and there will be no deficiency in the system as regards manpower development.”
He assured air travelers that the Nigerian airspace is safe, secure, and reliable. He urged them to ignore negative reports.