Aviation sector operators and professionals in the industry have disagreed over the decision of some airlines to continue flight operations while workers of the Nigeria Meteorological Agency were on strike.
NiMet workers are the only approved providers of weather reports to the country’s aviation sector. They had embarked on an industrial action last Tuesday over workers’ welfare issues. The strike was, however, suspended after the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, waded into the matter on Thursday.
NiMet provides weather reports for the aviation industry to guide airways and also prescribe whether it is safe for aircraft to take off or not, depending on the weather at all times.
Meanwhile, during the strike action of the workers, airlines were expected to be in limbo following the lack of weather reports. But, surprising to some professionals, operators continued their business as aircraft continued to land and take off from Nigerian aerodromes without NiMet guidance.
Some experts argued that the development could have jeopardised the safety of Nigerian passengers, as the aircraft that flew during the period would have experienced one form of accident or the other.
But operators who flew their airplanes during the time of the industrial action argued that they violated no rule.
Speaking for the operators, the Chief Executive Officer of Aero Contractors, Capt Ado Sanusi, said an airline has multiple means of getting a weather report, adding that should they have violated any aviation rule, the NCAA would have pounced on them.
Sanusi mentioned the Pilot Report (PIREP) was one of the means of getting weather reports.
He said: “The pilots, too, have life, and so they will not do anything unsafe. We are also trained to read the weather. There are alternative means of getting information to conduct safe flights. We have what is called PIREP. In that PIREP, you can get some vital information that can help you conduct a safe flight. That means the pilot has seen the weather conditions and has reported it to another pilot, and you can work on that report and fly there. This is accepted globally.
“We are conducting our flights, and there is no pilot who is conducting flights without the necessary information. I am not aware that we have cancelled or delayed flights because of the ongoing strike. Also, we are selective in the airports we go to. We don’t go everywhere.”
Also responding to the allegations, the spokesperson of Arik Air, Adebanji Ola, stated that the airline had continued to operate as scheduled.
He said there are numerous channels of obtaining weather reports by airlines, maintaining that these channels are approved by the NCAA.
He said, “There are many ways to get weather approval as endorsed by the authorities. It is not just through NiMet. There are more than three other sources from which we get weather reports.
“There are also instruments in the aircraft that give us weather reports. If it is not approved, the NCAA would have stopped the airlines from flying during that period. All these are in our Standard Operating Procedures and approved by the NCAA.”
But the Nigeria Meteorological Society and the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service, Technical and Recreational Services Employees jointly wrote the International Civil Aviation Organisation and the World Meteorological Organisation, reporting airlines that had continued flight operations despite the refusal of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency to provide weather reports.
The report stated that the continuous flight services of some airlines had put the safety of air travellers in jeopardy.
It said, “The association of professional meteorologists of Nigeria has just written to ICAO and WMO over the stance of some airlines flying without proper meteorological briefing and reports. United Nigeria Airlines is using a quack form to get meteorological information, and this is risky to Nigerian aviation users for safety reasons.”
Meanwhile, United Nigeria Airlines has assured its passengers that its flight operations remained safe, reliable and fully compliant with regulatory standards, despite the ongoing industrial action by the unions.
The airline, in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Chibuike Uloko, confirmed that NiMet provides essential meteorological support to the aviation sector, but insisted that its operations continued seamlessly through the deployment of alternative and internationally recognised weather data sources.
When contacted, the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at the NCAA, Michael Achimugu, confirmed that the authority was aware of the contentions, promising that an official reaction would be made public on Monday.
“Well, we have heard of the contentions, and even before the discussions, we are already working on it. We shall make our official position about it known Tomorrow, Monday,” he stated.
