As part of plans to resume international flight operations in the country, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency has disclosed the creation of nine new Performance-Based Navigation Area Navigation 10 (RNAV10) regional routes across the nation’s airspace.
It explained that the need to enhance regional connectivity, reduce flight time as well as fuel consumption for airlines, reduce C02 emission into the environment, and reduce operators’ cost necessitated creation of the nine new navigational routes.
NAMA Managing Director, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, said the move would also reduce pilot workload and enhance airspace capacity.\
Through a statement released to newsmen on Sunday, Akinkuotu listed the newly created PBN routes as UQ300- connecting Lagos to the Central African Republic; UY604-linking Abuja, Port Harcourt to Southern Africa; UQ181- connecting East and Central Africa to Europe through Nigerian airspace and UQ400-connecting southern Africa to North Africa through Nigeria to Europe.
Others are UQ324-from Adis Ababa to Niamey through Nigeria; UY333-from Tunisia/Algeria to Lagos; UY87-from East and Central Africa through Nigeria to Accra and Abidjan; UY57-from East and Central Africa through Nigeria coastal airspace to Cotonou, Lome, and Abidjan as well as UQ200-connecting Yaonde to Lagos.
The NAMA boss also disclosed that the agency has created six new flight-plannable direct routes, which are OK DCT POLTO; ARDEX DCT EDUKO; LAG DCT XIRON DCT JOS; KORUT DCT KDA; POLTO DCT APRUN DCT DETAR/ KORUT and KELAK DCT POSIB DCT GURAP DCT IBA DCT POLTO.
“The flight-plannable direct routes are to be used by compliant airlines’ flight management systems.
“It will avail them the opportunity of flight- planning and routing within the Nigerian airspace from an entry point directly to an exit point without recourse to existing Air Traffic service (ATS) route network,” the statement read.
