NAMA disputes air traffic controllers’ safety alarm, cites radar upgrade plans

Nigeria’s airspace management authority has pushed back against claims that the country’s airspace is unsafe, even as air traffic controllers maintain that obsolete equipment is putting aviation safety at risk.

The Nigerian Air Traffic Controllers’ Association, NATCA, triggered the dispute over the weekend when its president, Edino Ilemona Amos, and general secretary, Umar Fahad, declared that controllers could no longer guarantee the safety of Nigerian airspace due to failing Communications, Navigation and Surveillance infrastructure.

The association said the facilities were outdated, fell below acceptable reliability standards, and forced controllers to work around system weaknesses that had no place in a modern aviation environment.

In response, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency acknowledged that the Eurocat C radar system currently in use was aged but insisted the airspace remained safe. The Eurocat C is an automated surveillance and tracking platform that processes radar, flight plan, and meteorological data to support air traffic controllers.

NAMA’s Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Abdullahi Musa, said the Federal Government was already procuring a modern replacement and that the agency had, in the interim, begun deploying Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast technology as a backup to provide continuous, real-time surveillance.

Musa also highlighted recent capacity investments, noting that over 140 air traffic controllers had undergone specialised training abroad in the past year, while about 40 cadets had graduated from the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology in Zaria and the Nigerian Air Force Air Traffic Service Training Centre in Kaduna. An additional 30 cadets are currently in training.

On welfare concerns raised by controllers, Musa said issues around career progression for officers on Grade Level 16, post-licence allowances, staff claims, and fatigue were receiving active management attention in collaboration with the supervising ministry.