According to the association, it needs an additional 700 people to boost air traffic operations in the country’s airspace, as there are only 400 air traffic controllers currently manning various control towers across airports in the country.
The National President, NATCA, Mr Victor Eyaru, disclosed this to journalists in Lagos ahead of the 59th International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations, Africa and Middle East Region Meeting and Workshop in Abuja from November 5 to9.
IFATCA is an international collective of air traffic controller associations, established in 1961 as the largest and most comprehensive representative body for air traffic control in the world.
“The government needs to begin the employment of at least between 50 and 100 air traffic controllers annually to ensure that there is no vacuum created as a result of aging workforce in the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency. At least, additional 700 air traffic controllers will ease the work,” he said.
While commending the NAMA engineers for keeping the radars working, Eyaru urged the government to also source for spare parts for the radars in the country to prevent controllers from going back to procedural air traffic control in the country.
According to him, additional radar and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, which periodically broadcasts location and altitude information to air traffic controllers, are needed to work with the procedural control.