Experts task FG on AIS intervention fund
Aviation experts under the aegis of the Aeronautical Information Service, AIS, have urged the Federal Government to disburse an intervention fund to facilitate the full implementation of the AIS Automation Project.
They made this known at the 2019 World AIS Day Celebration at the Welcome Centre Hotels, Murtala Muhammed International Airport Road, Lagos.
The President, Aeronautical Information Management Association of Nigeria, AIMAN, Surv. William Ngerem, called on the Honorable Minister of State, Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, to use his exalted offices to approve special intervention fund to speed up the completion of the AIS Automation Project.
According to him, “AIS is a service established in support of international civil aviation, whose objective is to ensure the flow of information necessary for the safety, regularity, and efficiency of international air navigation as well as promote safety of air travelers.”
“Based on the Global Air Traffic Management Operational Concept, the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, deemed it fit that aeronautical information service must transit to a broader concept of Aeronautical Information Management, AIM.”
Surv. Ngerem noted that the project, if made fully operational, would enhance safety and efficiency in the Nigerian airspace as well as bring the country at par with other Western and African nations that have made laudable advancements in this regard.
He, however, pointed out that despite the laudable steps taken to deliver the transition from AIS to AIM, there were still a lot of challenges bedeviling the project.
Speaking in the same vein, the Managing Director, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, Engr. Fola Akinkuotu, stressed that funding is one of the major problem in actualizing the AIS Automation Project.
Engr. Akinkuotu who was represented by the Director of Operations, NAMA, Matthew Pwajok noted that the agency was aware of the critical deliverables of the Aeronautical Information Management, AIM, project such as the enhancement of e-NOTAM, e-Flight Planning, e-AIP, e-TOD, e-Charts, e-Flight briefing and so on.
According to him, “given that digitisation represents migration to a dynamic data-oriented aeronautical information management system that facilitates the real-time exchange of aeronautical information in an accurate and standardised format from anywhere to everywhere globally, the automation project is a must-do for NAMA.”
He, however, lamented that issues like Quality Management System, QMS, and training should be addressed speedily, adding that at the moment out of 245 AIS personnel in NAMA, only 13 AIS staff had been trained on the Avitech software (AMHS/AIS Course-8; AIM and Structured publishing training -5) against the average 200 personnel required to run the automation.
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