The National AirTraffic Communicators Association of Nigeria (NACAN) says the inadequate number of its personnel for operations in the country’s 24 functional airports is worrisome.
NACAN’s President, Mr George Nkambo, spoke at the association’s fourth general meeting in Lagos on Tuesday.
Nkambo disclosed that there were only 97 trained and licensed communication personnel nationwide, which was grossly inadequate to cover operations across the nation’s airports.
According to him, the management of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) did not employ personnel into the department between 1989 and 2012.
He, therefore, appealed to the management to approve the basic training at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology for officers to be properly integrated into the mainstream.
According to him, this will assist in addressing the acute manpower shortage in the department.
Nkambo said that NAMA, as an air navigation service provider, had the responsibility of rendering its task with high sense of professionalism as outlined by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) annexes.
The NACAN president also decried the inability of his members to attend mandatory local and foreign courses to build their capacity due to lack of funding by management.
He explained that air traffic communication was an important part of air traffic service in NAMA as spelt out in ICAO Annex 10 volume II, which was necessary for exchange of air traffic service messages.
Nkambo, however, commended the NAMA’s management for converting some personnel from within the agency who applied for conversion after meeting the requisite criteria, into the department.
The NACAN president also called for provision of modern facilities across the airports to improve the safety of air navigation in the country.
