communicators call for better working equipment, more personnel

The National Air traffic Communicators Association of Nigeria (NACAN) has called on the authorities of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) to provide state of the art equipment in its departments across the country to enable it to carry out its functions effectively.

The President of NACAN, Mr George Nkambo who disclosed this to journalists in his office at Ikeja while highlighting the activities of its coming 25th AGM in Abuja noted, that lack of equipment has negatively affected the performance of the air traffic Communicators unit.

He said it was frustrating when you come to work and you cannot work. “When you come to work, you see the backlog of messages that ought to have been transmitted and not transmitted. It allows people to think other things; it gives room for laxity as if they are not ready to work”

Nkambo noted that there were procedures to be followed daily which are recorded on logbooks but it will be difficult to do without equipment.

The NACAN president who also decried the shortage of manpower in the department urged the Management of NAMA to look at their case as a peculiar one as they needed additional 300 personnel to join the 176 on the ground to cover all the airports across the country effectively, saying communicators were the least in the directorate of operations

He explained their five airports, Jalingo, Bayelsa, Bauchi, Kebbi and Jigiwa were yet to be covered by Communicators operations adding that most of these airports were involved In Hajj operations.

Nkambo revealed that with the intervention of the NCAA, few members of NACAN have been drafted to Bayelsa airport stressing that Lagos has limited numbers of Communicators.

According to him, with equipment coming in and with only two persons on a shift, it will be difficult to cover their functions at the terminal to receive data from the Kano and Abuja Abuja stations.

“We have e-flight plans messages coming from airlines, Lagos we have a heap of flight between 11 and 12 midnight. All scheduled flights turn in their plans for transmission and you require people to do that, people work more than six hours it is detrimental to health.”

Nkambo appealed to the management of NAMA to always handle issues affecting various professional bodies in the Agency and solve it once and for all.

The NACAN boss revealed that his tenure has recorded a lot of training especially overseas for his members noting that some retired from the system without any training before his com\ing on board as a result of their relationship with the management

Nkambo explained that about 17 Communicators were presently undergoing training in Advance Communication officers course in Zaria while the forgotten aeronautical mobile service course, communications management course and but were revived under his administration as NACAN boss

He regretted the negative impact of the COVID-19 on their operations saying it was a challenging year that nobody wished to witness anymore

Nkambo called on the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to restore the two ratings on the license (Aeronautical Station Operator license) of members which were removed as a result of the 2009 amendment.

He commended Capt Akinkout the NAMA boss and the director of operations in the Agency for the cooperation and fatherly advise

Nkambo revealed that awards will be presented to those that have distinguished themselves in various fields in the aviation sector

In a related development, the general secretary of NACAN, Kayode Famuro, explained that the present executives were able to address myriads of problems that retarded the progress of the association.