The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has announced that it is upgrading its computing and communication resource from Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network (AFTN) to Air Traffic Service Message Handling System (AMHS). The change is to take effect in the next two weeks.
The announcement was made by Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, NAMA’s Managing Director, during the 25th anniversary of the National Air Traffic Communicators Association of Nigeria (NACA) in Abuja recently.
As per the NAMA boss, AMHS is a world-wide messaging standard and thus necessitates global politics to effect it, reason why the system upgrade cannot take effect immediately despite its availability. He also threw light on why Germany has been chosen as the switch point, saying that it was the contractor’s decision, despite that Kano had been the initial preference for that purpose.
While the news of the system upgrade was a much welcomed one, Mr. George Nkambo, the President of NACAN, used the opportunity to solicit for an increase in manpower and equipment in the communications departments in airports across the country, explaining that three hundred (300) more personnels are needed to supplement the one hundred and seventy-six (176) currently on the job; with the airports of Bauchi, Jalingo, Bayelsa, Jigiwa and Kebbi lacking in Communicators’ operations.
In response, the NAMA boss noted that the Agency has been committed to the improvement of air traffic communications as well as the employment and training of staff since 2017, and assured his audience that NAMA is currently looking into ways of solving the issues of workforce and equipment shortage.
According to aviation experts, the upgrade from AFTN to AMHS will ensure better flight safety in line with the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), since the latter technology has much higher functionality, as it can be employed to transmit not just text messages but images, graphics, databases, audios, files and videos as well.
