By Adekunle Williams

Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Ltd. (BASL) has urged the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to grant the Murtala Muhammad Airport Two (MMA2) the regulatory approval to begin regional operations in the terminal.

The Chairman of BASL, Dr Wale Babalakin, made the appeal shortly after inaugurating ‘The Art Experience’ (Art Gallery) in MMA2 to celebrate its 16 years anniversary in Lagos on Tuesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in May 2007, BASL completed and opened the MMA2 facility under the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) agreement with the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

The Ministerial Committee on Airport Security in 2016 had certified the Murtala Muhammed Airport Two, fit for the commencement of regional operations.

Babalakin, however, decried the delay in starting regional operations from the Murtala Muhammed Airport Two (MMA2), Lagos, years after the terminal was granted approval by the government.

He said: ‘I am alarmed that we have not commenced regional operations because we went through the entire process, we were certified, but we have not been allowed to take off.

“I am shocked because the MMA2 terminal was built to provide services for both regional and domestic passengers but it is presently underutilised.

“We had already spent several billions of naira to acquire the state-of-the-art facilities in preparation for regional flight operations, but the inconsistency in government policy despite the approval, had prevented it from using the facilities.”

Bi-Courtney boss who said that the terminal remained a world class and the best in the country, explained that the best architects were engaged to design the terminal that would stand the test of time.

Babalakin noted it was a deliberate effort to design an outstanding world-class terminal that could stand the test of time.

He said, “From when passengers come off the escalator, it is a seamless process till they board the plane.”

According to him, “We didn’t just start building, we sat down with the best of architects in the world to design a terminal that will have a flow, it is the flow that has made it easy for people to operate here.

“You can see the link between the car park and the terminal, so you are not going through a disjointed journey because you want to travel.

“We think that it is backward to have passengers walking on the terminals because it is dangerous, it only takes one accident and the county will be embarrassed.”

Babalakin said with the newly commissioned art gallery centre, BASL planned to continue to raise the standard of the terminal and offer travellers an experience that was beyond just traveling.

He said what Bi-Courtney did was to uplift the terminal standards with the hope that anybody who decided to build a terminal in the future would have all these standards incorporated into their terminals.(NAN)

Edited by Idris Abdulrahman

By Segun Giwa

The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) in conjunction with a private company, Ala Resort Ltd., has concluded arrangements to turn the Akure Airport to an aerotropolis.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the resort, Mr Moyosola Niran-Oladunni, stated this in Akure on Monday during a news conference to herald the inauguration of the project.

Niran-Oladunni said that the project would be inaugurated on Tuesday with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between FAAN and the management of the resort.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that an aerotropolis is a metropolitan area developed in and well beyond an airport premises.

It involves the development of an airport based city, with air travel at its core, and surrounded by commercial, educational, entertainment, healthcare and hospitality centres.

Niran-Oladunni explained that the company was bringing ideas that would impact value on the state.

He said the aerotropolis, which would be first of its kind in sub-sahara Africa, would drive lives around the aviation industry.

According to Niran-Oladunni, the resort had begun moves on the aerotropolis since 2017 when experts were invited to assess the airport for its suitability for the project.

He revealed that FAAN had approved the project, which he said, would be constructed in phases including institutional, industrial, commercial and agricultural.

According to him, the aerotropolis will parade institutional zone including sports academy that can host any sport club, which will be built by Emirate Foundation and a medical centre to be built by a U.S. company.

“The industrial zone will also enable all materials to be used for the construction to be assembled and manufactured in the sector within,” he said.

Niran-Oladunni added that the aerotropolis had the potential to catalyse cargo business in the airport, saying that the airport authority would activate the cargo shed in the airport.

He disclosed that no fewer than 14,000 skilled workers would be engaged by the aerotropolis with the infrastructure facilities gulping N56 billion.

According to him, the project is being developed as a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) between Ala Resort Ltd. and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

“Ala Resort and aerotropolis will be a sprawling development for which air travel will constitute the driving force and central concept, surrounded by complementary developments of commercial, educational, entertainment, healthcare, hospitality and light industrial centres.

“Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is expected to perform the ground-breaking, assisted by the Ondo State governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, and Minister of Aviation, Mr Hadi Sirika,” he said.

Also, the General Manager, Business Development, FAAN Headquarters, Mr Hycinth Ngwu, said the decision was anchored on a PPP geared toward developing an aerotropolis in the airport.

Ngwu assured that the project would be executed as planned and Akure Airport would revolutionise the way the authority generates revenue.

“It’s in the interest of all stakeholders to support the project. It will increase revenue base of the state and local government.

“Certainly, majority of the employees will come from the locality. They should support it because it will transform to their successes.

“We intend to replicate this in other airports. We started in Akure because it initially had the largest land mass before being overtaken recently by Abuja Airport,” he said.

The Airport Manager, Akure, Mrs Lynda Ezike, assured that the management and members staff of the airport were expectant and ready to support the proposed unprecedented developmental mega project.

“We are ready to support Ala Resort Ltd. in ensuring the success of this mega project which is for the betterment of all stakeholders,” she said.(NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Bayo Sekoni

By Gabriel Agbeja

The Nigeria Safety Investigation Board (NSIB) and Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) have expressed readiness to conduct a thorough investigation on the cause(s) of Max Air craft tyre loss.

The accident occurred at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja,  on Sunday.

The NCAA Director General, Capt. Musa Nuhu, said in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja, that the outcome of the investigation would help the agencies to make appropriate recommendations to prevent any recurrence of such incident.

“A Max Air flight NGL1649 a B737 aircraft with registration 5N-MBD departed Yola for Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, with 144 passengers and 6 flight crew on board.

“During landing at Abuja airport the aircraft lost some tires, the flight crew brought the aircraft to a safe stop on Runway 22 at 2.57pm local time.

“All persons on board were evacuated safely and the airport emergency services including the rescue and fire fighting services response was excellent,” he said.

The NCAA boss affirmed that Abuja airport was shutdown due to the disabled aircraft on the runway, as Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport is a single runway airport.

Nuhu stated that a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) was issued by NAMA accordingly.

“All relevant agencies including NCAA, FAAN, NAMA and NSIB swung into action collaboratively to ensure the prompt removal of the disabled aircraft from the runway and reopening of the airport for flight operations.

“Several flights both domestic and international flights were stranded at Abuja airport, while incoming flights diverted to other airports.

“The damaged wheels of the aircraft were replaced and the aircraft taxied on its power from the runway to an assigned parking position,” he added.

According to him, the runway was inspected and swept for damage and debris by officials of NCAA, Federal Airports Authority (FAAN) and Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) after which the runway was declared safe.

He said that, subsequently, the airport was reopened for resumption of flight operations after 8 p.m.

“It has come to the notice of NCAA of sensational media reports of the incident, classifying it as a crash landing thus creating panic and concerns amongst the traveling public.

“The media are urged to seek clarifications and or information as to make accurate reports of any situation.

“The traveling public should be rest assured that NCAA and other aviation agencies will spare no efforts to ensure the continued safe flight operations in Nigeria as has been the case over several years,” he said. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola

By Gabriel Agbeja

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) says it is ready to enhance awareness toward tackling climate change in Africa.

Dr Agnes Kijazi, WMO Regional Director for Africa, made the assertion on Friday in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

According to her, WMO will continue to enhance its advocacy and awareness to the communities in the region of the extreme weather events through early warning and anticipatory actions.

“You may know that Africa is vulnerable to extreme weather events with attendant socio-economic impacts. We will continue to enhance our advocacy and awareness to our communities of extreme weather events through early warning and anticipatory actions.

“You are probably aware of the mandate from the UN Secretary-General to WMO to ensure that every citizen in the world receives an early warning in the next five years.

“We have started this process with a ministerial meeting held in Maputo, Mozambique, in September 2022, and we intend to escalate this to the rest of the other regional economic communities,“ she said.

She said WMO Regional Office was saddled with responsibility to assist Members in developing National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) to enable them to play their full role in economic and social development of their countries.

She said the regional office was also assisting members to utilize the services of the Regional Offices to develop and strengthen their NMHSs.

The director stated that the office constantly added value to NMHSs in Africa by improving the services they provided to their stakeholders in order to fulfill mandated.

“The office is currently advocating using digital technologies for effective and efficient service delivery to provide early warning services for all in National Meteorological and Hydrological Services.

“ In addition, such technologies are critical for digital data collection, processing and services delivery mechanisms, as well as data validation, data storage and handling.

“ WMO Secretary-General , Prof. Petteri Taalas, wants more proactive Regional Offices in line with Regional Offices Reform to ensure Regional office in Africa is more proactive as per that call,“ she said.

According to her, the regional office currently facilitates more than 10 projects foster on sustainable development by strengthening the climate services value chain at the regional and national levels.

Kijazi said the efforts were to improve adaptive capacity and resilience to current climate variability and change among targeted farmers, agro-pastoralists and pastoralist communities.

“Also, to enhance capacities in NMHSs in the provision and utilisation of weather and climate services in countries, to modernise meteorological services through digital transformation of data management and to enhance climate services among others.“

She said the regional office was in partnership with other regional and international Organizations as part of its core functions in line with the WMO Reforms process on comprehensive review of the WMO Regional Concept and Approaches.

The director said the concept to deliver with sister UN agencies was to strengthen collaboration in the core activities.

According to Kijazi, the regional office recommends capacity development programmes of its staff to the WMO Human Resources through indication from prospective staff as outlined in the training plan or opportunities from external projects and activities.

She said the office also coordinated NMHSs’ training of their staff through various workshops and WMO Education and Training Programmes.

“The main current challenge is in relation to the regional reforms as highlighted in congress resolutions. We are setting strategic priorities to address this challenge through coordination and supporting Members.

`This is to enable them to implement congress and executive council decisions and minimize the existing gap in observations and Multi-hazard Early Warning Systems and service delivery. 

“I have resumed and still assessing activities in the Office to further ascertain what challenges are confronting the Office through the monitoring and evaluation process,“ she said.

Kijazi described her new appointment as the Director of the WMO Regional Office for Africa as new task that really worth it. 

“ I have been involved in many leadership roles previously, and my appointment as the Director of the WMO Regional Office for Africa is a new challenge and opportunity for me.

“You may note that I was the Director General of the Tanzania Meteorological Authority and the Third Vice President of WMO.

“ So, I wish to bring these leadership and management skills to the administration of the Regional Office for Africa,“ she added.

NAN reports that Dr Agnes Kijazi resumed office on Dec.10, 2022 as a new Director for WMO Regional Office for Africa. (NNA)(www.nanews.ng)

========

Edited by Isaac Aregbesola

By Kingsley Okoye

Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, Chairman United Nigeria Airlines (UNA), has urged the Federal Government to leave a legacy by providing a window of special funding for aviation sector operators.

Okonkwo made the call in Abuja on Thursday, while speaking at a retreat organised by management of United Nigeria Airlines to mark its two- year operation in the aviation industry.

The retreat, with the theme: “Positioning United Nigeria for Value Creation and Retention”, was organised for management staff of the company.

Okonkwo said the call for provision of special funding for operators in aviation became necessary, given its essential duty nature and its growing contribution to the Nigerian Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“We are just asking for a special funding window that should be of a single digit and that is easily accessible, not necessarily on paper, but it is not accessible.

“We still believe that this government has done a lot for the aviation industry, though, more needs to be done and we think that the bigger legacy that this government will leave for the aviation industry is to ensure that the operators survive.

“No operator should go under, rather let there be new operators in the business of aviation.”

He said the indigenous airline operators had been very patriotic and contributed immensely to growth of the nation’s GDP.

“We are very patriotic Nigerians, who have contributed so much to the GDP of the nation, giving employment; it is a sector that I advise this government and in coming government to take very seriously.

“If properly harnessed, it will be a great source of foreign exchange for the country, especially if the local operators should be empowered; this industry, we believe remains a critical and essential industry that should be treated as such.

“This industry can not survive further at the regular commercial rates; we know that there are privileges’ given to sectors like agriculture and others, aviation should be considered also.”

According to Okonkwo, the airline transportation required a special attention.

“If this is done, I have no doubt that the operators will be stronger and further render better services to the people.”

He emphasised further that there was need for government to consider a special funding for the sector operators, saying that it was a win-win situation for both government and the operators and ultimately for the good of Nigerians.

“I also thought that the government should consider a window of “Special Funds” at a single unit loan for the operators, because it’s a win -win situation for the companies and the government.

“This is one sector that pays the government as they receive their own because every ticket that is issued, all agencies of government have their own.

“It creates high level, high powered employment, high skilled workers that pay good income tax to the government, and so this is one of the sectors that should be taken seriously and the operators are happy to work out all the new arrangement with the government.

“If this capital is provided, the individual airlines will access it as par their needs and then capitalise individually.

“This is because there is a capital you should have as a domestic operator and the required capital, if you are going international or regional routes.

“So you can imagine, a situation where you go to the bank today and access naira loan at the rate of 25 to 30 per cent and then you go back to the foreign exchange window and buy it at the rate of N750, you just basically operate for nothing.”

Okonkwo said that the United Airlines management was committed to further improving on its performance going further in spite of the challenges experienced in the past year.

The Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of the airline, Mr Osita Okonkwo, said the company’s strategy of going forward was to continue on its growth path.

He said in spite of the challenges, the company survived, saying that it was grateful to God, the traveling public and the regulators, that had kept fate with the company.

He said the company, in 2023 and beyond, would continue to excel and improve its service to the traveling public and customers, focus on its equipment to ensure its fleet was up to date.

According to him, the company has a massive expansion programme in the fleet area in numbers and aircraft.

“We have started already with A 320, which is already flying, more will join the fleet,

“We are expanding our destinations; we have the objective of having a footprint in every airport in Nigeria; we are about to start Jos and Benin and other towns in the North- East and North-West will follow.

“We are going outside Nigeria, we are moving regionally, we are going through the regulatory process now; we have gotten our airline carriers permit.

“We have gotten designations to a number of countries, which will be announced soon,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

===============
Edited by Idris Abdulrahman

Presentation of 2023 Seasonal Climate Predictions in Abuja

By Gabriel Agbeja

The Minster of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, says the Federal Government is deepening efforts to implement adaptation measures to reduce impact of climate change on vulnerable Nigerians.

Sirika made this known in Abuja in his keynote address at the presentation of 2023 Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) and other Publications.

According to him, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) is contributing to the adaptation measures by providing timely meteorological information regularly.

“The Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) is an essential early warning tool for planning against the effect of climate change and variability in all weather -sensitive sectors of the economy.

“The information also helps in taking advantage of favourable climatic conditions to improve performance, especially in agriculture.

“The SCP provides vital meteorological information on temperature, rainfall pattern, onset of the season, end of season, length of season and their impacts on socio-economic activities in the country,“ he said.

Sirika said experience over the years had proved that the application of the early warning information helped in increasing resilience and reducing vulnerability to extreme weather events

He said that over the years, NiMet had progressively improved on the coverage and quality of data collection and predictions.

According to him, the agency has also incorporated the interpretation of the forecast into three major languages of Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo as well as improved downscaling of the forecast all over the country.

“NiMet with the support of the Federal Ministry of Aviation will continue to demonstrate its capacity and commitment to provide quality and timely services in line with its mandate.

“Nigeria is an active member of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and therefore the agency is also committed to fulfil its international obligations.

“Our stakeholders in all-weather sensitive sectors like agriculture, aviation, maritime, environment, water resources, energy, engineering tourism and the public will find information in SCP very vital in their various operational and decision-making activities, “ he said.

The minister stated that Nigeria was playing its own part in the global effort to combat climate change regarding compliance with the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

“Also by submitting the Updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) secretariat in July 2021.

“The updated NDC, re-stated the actions the country is committed to taking to limit global warming and climate change,“ the minister said.

The NiMey’s Director- General, Prof. Mansur Matazu said SCP provided a snapshot of some essential climate parameters and their behaviour within the season.

According to him, NiMet produces the publication annually in fulfilment of its mandate to provide accurate, timely and quality weather and climate information to advise the federal, states and local governments in the country.

“So also it provides the public weather and climate-related issues. The information provided in the SCP is tailored mainly to boost economic growth and prevent loses due to severe weather phenomena.

“The production process of the SCP involves scientific use of long-term meteorological data with state-of- the-art prediction models.

“Furthermore, a co-production process involving relevant stakeholders such as agriculture, aviation, construction, water resources, health, trade and tourism among others was implemented to achieve these remarkable user-tailored forecast,“ he said. (NAN) (www.nanenws.ng)

Edited by Grace Yussuf

By Yunus Yusuf

The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) Nigeria says it has begun investigation into the  Air Peace Boeing 737-300 aircraft that had a burst tyre, while landing on Runway 18R , on Monday, in Lagos.

AIB’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Tunji Oketunbi, disclosed this in a statement issued on Wednesday, in Lagos.

Oketunbi said the incident occurred as the plane was landing on Runway 18R on Monday, carrying 127 passengers and six crew members from Abuja Airport en route Lagos, but landed without causalities.

He said: “The Accident Investigation Bureau, Nigeria has been notified and commenced investigation into a serious incident.

“This incident involves a Boeing 737-300 with Nationality and Registration Marks 5N-BUQ operated by Air Peace Airline, which occurred around 9.31 p.m. (Local Time) on March 8, 2021.

“The aircraft, with 127 passengers and six crew members onboard, was en route Lagos from Abuja.

“The aircraft had a burst tyre on landing on Runway 18R of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, and taxied to GAT to park. There was no injury or fatality.”

Oketunbi said that AIB required assistance of the public in the course of its investigation into the accident, explaining that it was open to receiving any video clips, relevant evidence, or information on the incident from any member of the public.

“Kindly contact us on our official communication channels: Mobile App: AIB-N, Website: www.aib.gov.ng, Twitter: @aibnigeria, Instagram: @AIB_Nigeria.

“Facebook: AIB Nigeria, Email: commissioner@aib.gov.ng, SMS/WhatsApp: +234807 709 0900, 0807 709 0928,” he said.

He added that the bureau would, however, appreciate respect for the privacy of the people involved, by both the public and the media, and not to assume the cause of the accident, until a formal report was released.

The general manager said, however, that the agency would soon release its preliminary report on the incident. (NAN)