BEVERLY HILLS, May 30, (THEWILL) – ANTHONY AWUNOR looks at the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency’s approach to sustaining a long term COVID-19 recovery plan
Globally, the aviation industry has been reported as one of the sectors that was hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which broke out early in 2020. With the coming of the virus, the industry was brought to its knees and flight operations were hampered by flight restrictions and the fear of a possible spread of the virus through air travel.
Unexpectedly the COVID-19 virus spread worldwide without acknowledging borders. It impacted negatively on all industries and all the sectors of the global economy with devastating results.
Information from the various international organisations representing the affected industries showed that the impact of the pandemic on the global aviation industry was enormous.
Also figures sourced from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Airports Council International (ACI), the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pointed out the great damages to the industry. The result of the attendant loss of revenue and traffic is a full-scale global transportation crisis.
More than 2.7 million people have died worldwide due to this virus. Researchers have recently estimated that the world lost a total of 20.5 million years of life because of premature COVID-19 deaths.
Apart from the massive losses incurred, in terms of human lives, virtually all aspects of economic and social activity were and are still disrupted by the pandemic.
Nonetheless, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency has done its best to support a sustained recovery strategy, despite recent positive signs and prospects for recovery.
Aware that COVID-19 remains an existential crisis for airports, airlines and their commercial partners, NAMA under the leadership of Capt Fola Akinkuotu was able to weather the storm and provide air navigation services during the lockdown period.
The agency made a effort to resolve all issues for better performance. There was work in progress, which resulted in the upgrade and refurbishment of equipment, calibrations, new installations and deployments, as well as routine maintenance work across the CNS/ATM domain before, during and after the lockdown periods. This helped to keep the airspace open, thereby ensuring the movement of emergency/essential flights, which greatly facilitated the fight against the pandemic. By implication, the staff of the agency dared the virus, made sacrifices and worked round the clock to support the front line workers in the medical field.
However, a new challenge of poor revenue generation was introduced by the pandemic with the suspension of commercial flights. This affected the management’s ability to cope with her statutory obligations to her staff as and when due thereby threatening the industrial harmony existing in the agency.
Speaking on the great efforts of NAMA and how the agency was able to survive the trying period, the President of Nigerian Association of Aeronautical Engineers (NAAE), Ishaya Dung, confirmed that the managing Director of NAMA, Capt Fola Akinkuotu, had performed very well, considering the challenges he inherited and those introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dung described Capt Akinkuotu’s style of administration as all inclusive, saying that explained why he was able to record tangible achievements.
Before the pandemic, he noted, Akinkuotu systematically tried to cut down leakages resulting from frivolous DTAs, improved training (both local and foreign), improved monthly allocation to NAMA outstations, improved on equipment performance and achieved a better welfare package through the harmonisation of staff salaries.
Dung said the NAMA boss was on the verge of bringing home the document listing the new staff conditions of service and the NHIS when the Corona Virus struck.
Even with the resumption of commercial flights and the significant improvement in revenue generation, Akinkuotu has given the assurance that he will fulfill all obligations to staff within the shortest possible time. He has demonstrated this with the payment of productivity allowance.
“From the forgoing the agency can be said to be living up to expectation in terms of airspace management, especially with new installations that have improved navigation during low visibility periods and also enhanced communications in the airspace with more redundancy, among others”, Dung said.
Also commending NAMA is the former Secretary-General of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Comrade Olayinka Abioye, who attested that, in terms of covid-19 recovery strategy, NAMA was buoyantly addressing infrastructural deficits and staff welfare issues to the admiration of the stakeholdersin the aviation industry.
Unfortunately, Abioye lamented the devastating effects of the pandemic vis-à-vis the closure of Nigerian airports and the partial closure of the airspace which dealt a big blow to operations and the financial fortunes of NAMA and all other agencies or bodies.
According to the former labour scribe, the situation became so bad that revenue nose-dived and a once “action-packed” agency became the one delaying the payment of salaries and pensions, and had to source for funds in order to perform its obligations to its workforce.
He said that, aside the payment of staff salaries and pensions, which NAMA managed to squeeze out monthly, some other aspects of the agency’s critical areas were tactically addressed in order to keep the system running, bearing in mind that throughout the critical period of the pandemic, a sizeable number of its staff were attending to duties in all NAMA facilities across the country.
Even at that, Abioye recalled, certain benefits had to be suspended and there were outright delays and cancellation.
Explaining further, he said, “During that particular period, overseas trainings and other sundry engagements were put on hold. Deductions could not be defrayed due to shortage of funds. However, thanks to the leadership skills and prudent management of available resources, NAMA seems to have successfully overcome the challenges, more so with the gradual return to the skies of airlines, especially the foreign ones.”
NAMA is moving forward, in spite of the pandemic, and putting in place motorised towers, which are currently being put up for Factory Assessment Tests and training of its operatives. This is in addition to the ongoing calibrations across the country.
According to Abioye, Akinkuotu shows profound empathy towards all members of staff and retirees, especially given the failures and negligence of past administrations, adding that “his administration has been able to show that leaders must respect the dignity of labour of its employees, as welfare matters enjoyed top priority attention unlike in the past, training and retraining which are routine ingredients for optimum productivity and professionalism is been given desired attention and push. Although things may seemed slow in coming, definitely, NAMA under Akinkuotu is far better and well positioned to meet the challenges of the 21st century world aviation nay air navigation service provision”.
He advised that more efforts should be put into the policies in place so that in the next two years, it shall be songs of praise for all employees and management of NAMA.
While it is not yet Uhuru, Abioye pointed out that one can expect that, when the skies are cleared as safe and secure for full-blown air transportation, more improvement is expected.
About the Author
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
