Nigeria strengthen its airspace connectivity, creates 9 new PBN regional routes
To enhance connectivity within the African continent ahead of international flight resumption in the country, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has created 9 new Performance Based Navigation (PBN) Area Navigation 10 (RNAV10) regional routes across the nation’s airspace. Apart from improving connectivity, the initiative is also geared towards reducing flight time as well as fuel consumption for airlines, reduce C02 emission into the environment and reduce cost to operators.
Others are to reduce pilot workload and enhance airspace capacity.
In a press release, the Managing Director, NAMA Captain Fola Akinkuotu im a statement listed the newly created PBN routes to include UQ300- connecting Lagos to the Central African Republic; UY604-linking Abuja, Port Harcourt to Southern Africa. Others are, 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 Yaounde to Lagos.
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.”
Captain Akinkuotu also disclosed that apart from the PBN routes, NAMA has also created 6 new flight-plannable direct routes.
