Colossus Gists

The aviation industry is currently contending with acute labour shortage worldwide, industry operators have said. They have therefore warned that unless training and retraining of aviation personnel is increased, in the nearest future airlines may ground flights because of lack of pilots.

In Nigeria, since the past 10 years, domestic airlines have been engaging expatriates as pilots and engineers, but recently, some of them have been engaging scheduling officers, route development officials and others.

The Rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, Captain Abdulsalam Mohammed said that the cost of training pilots is high but noted that relatively, the cost of the training at the college is relatively low.

Industry observers argued that the major challenge Nigerian pilots face is type-rating, alleging that Nigerian airlines are reluctant to engage pilots from school to type-rate on their aircraft.

Airlines pay hugely to recruit and retain expatriate pilots and engineers and most often they pay them in dollars, while they earn their revenues in local currency, the naira, which literally digs big holes in their finances.

It is not only pilots that are at short supply, most personnel in the technical areas of aviation is not easy to come by, said KLCC, an industry magazine, which noted that there is paucity of aviation personnel in all the technical areas.

Reports also indicate that aircraft mechanics and flight simulator technicians are also in high demand.

KLCC reported that at Alaska Airlines’ Flight Training Center near Seattle, USA, the organisation is finding it difficult to get instructors for the facility.

“You’ve heard about the pilot retirement wave, but there is also a retirement wave in the flight simulator maintenance field.

Even though our numbers aren’t as large as the pilots, the impact might be greater than the pilots because we maintain these machines that the pilots actually train on day in and day out before they go out and fly you safely to your destination,”

Said one of the instructors at the flight school.

A team of safety and security auditors from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) have commenced work geared at preparing four of Nigeria’s international airports sited in Enugu, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, and Kano ready for international certifications, says Managing Director/CEO of FAAN, Mr. Saleh Dunoma.

Dunoma, who addressed aviation reporters in Lagos yesterday, also announced that all ongoing remodeling work at the Lagos and Abuja airports would be completed by June 2018.

“We had to change the completion dates (initially fixed for 2016) because of issues pertaining to dollar exchange rate with contractors because when the projects were awarded the dollar exchanged for N160 but as at today it goes for over N300 per $1. The approval process for the variations of the contract ended up being sop lengthy, but Port Harcourt Airport is about 80 per cent completed, while Abuja and Lagos are almost done. By the middle of this year we should complete these projects,” he added.

Dunoma said the said safety and security processes, infrastructure and conditions at the Enugu, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Kaduna international airports were being evaluated by the auditors from NCAA and FAAN with the view to getting them align with international standards prior to their certification.

Dunoma said the certification of the four airports became necessary following the successful certification of the Lagos and Abuja airports by the NCAA and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). None of Niegria’s airports operated with any international certification until the Lagos and Abuja airports were certified in 2017. Dunoma said the plan was to get all airports in the country certified in the years ahead.

He also said plans have reached advanced stage to procure and install mobile Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras at the airside of all airports in the country.

Dunoma said that the mobile CCTV cameras would cover a distance of seven kilometers and could sight even long distances at night.

According to him, with the procurement of the mobile cameras and improvement on perimeter fencing patrol, the era of incursions into the airside of airports by unwanted persons (like the recent invasion of the Akure airport runway by heard of cows) would be eliminated.

Dunoma also debunked allegations that runways managed by the agency were faulty and could have been responsible for the accident involving a Dana Air flight recently at the Port Harcourt Airport.

“One of the features of runways design is to ensure effective drainage on the sides so that water does not collect at the centres and that’s how our runways are,” he said.

“So we don’t have issues with flooding on our runways because our runways are designed in such a way that water is properly drained,” he added.

On the indebtedness of airlines and other concessionaires in the sector, Dunoma said FAAN was reconciling the debts with its clients at regional level and would continue to do this until the debts are reduced to the barest minimum, but observed that aviation industry worldwide allows credit.

Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport

All critical facilities have been put in place in the rehabilitation of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, which dilapidated state prompted the closure of the airport six weeks ago and now is ready for flight operations.

Here are some photo display of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport reopened on Tuesday, 18th April 2017 by the minister of Aviation Hadi Sirka. It was indeed a thing of joy as people from different places expressed their joy. It was gathered by Newsmen from the Aviation minister, that the dead line for the project was met.