As part of plans to resume international flight operations, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has created nine new Performance Based Navigation (PBN) Area Navigation 10 (RNAV10) regional routes across the nation’s airspace.
Managing Director of NAMA Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, who disclosed at the weekend, listed the newly created PBN routes to include 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.
Also created 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.
Besides, the PBN routes, NAMA, Akinkuotu said has also created six new flight-plannable direct routes.
These include: 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 NAMA boss said: “The flight-plannable direct routes are to be used by compliant airlines’ flight management systems and would avail them the opportunity of flight- planning and routing within the Nigerian airspace from an entry point direct to an exit point without recourse to existing Air Traffic service (ATS) route network.”
Akinkuotu said the agency embarked on the initiative to enhance regional connectivity, reduce flight time as well as fuel consumption for airlines, reduce C02 emission into the environment and reduce cost to operators, even as he said the move would also reduce pilot workload and enhance airspace capacity.