AMHS goes digital in Nigerian Airspace Management Agency

• As Akinkoutu laments effect on Covid on Aviation.

By Chukwuemeke Iwelunmo

The Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) Capt Fola Akinkoutu says the ATS Message Handling System (AMHS) will commence full operations in the next two weeks to evolve the digital system with a wider band,

With this, there will be no limitation of messages to be transmitted with high speed and adequate feedback as against the AFTN with its channel check transmission and it will make the Communicator’s work easier and provide clearer messages.

Akinkoutu who announced this said that the AMHS system of communications was in place and needed global politics to make it work as it was supposed to be switched on in Kano but the contractor picked Germany as the switch on point.

Speaking as the chief host at the 25th anniversary of the National Airtraffic Communicators Association of Nigeria (NACAN) in Abuja, Capt Akinkoutu said NAMA has improved on training and employment since 2017 while communications has been improved upon.

Akinkoutu stated that the management was addressing the issue of shortage of manpower, trainings and equipment since 2017 when he came on board.

This just as he hinted that Aero communications was critical in ensuring safety in the aviation sector

Akinkoutu explained that the federal government recognized the contributions of NACAN to the development of the aviation industry and was doing everything possible to make sure that they get the best of treatment stressing that the International Civil Aviation Organisation from the very beginning recognized Aero communications as a means of communication for safety

He noted that the success made by aviation was as a result of the fact that aviation has been in the forefront

The NAMA boss regretted the challenges of the covid in the world and said the restart button must be pushed in order for the industry to bounce back as nobody expected the pandemic but brought everybody to a rude stop

He assured of the growth of Air transport in the near future adding that air travel has remained the safest means of travel especially in this era of insecurity

According to Akinkoutu, aeronautical communications remained the bottle neck threatening capacity limit in the air transportation as it has not been able to meet the demand of traffic in the air.

The NAMA boss explained that tomorrow’s communications will be a different ball game as it will on the satellite adding that the business of radio communications which the agency was still struggling to achieve in order to move from analog to digital, was long over due

Earlier in his address, the NACAN president Mr George Nkambo identified 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 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.