20 Aviation/BUSINESS
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
aviation REPORTS
Mish Aviation Harps On Manpower Devt For African Aviation The chief executive officer of Mish Aviation Flying School, Ghana, Captain Ibrahim Mshelia, has encouraged the training of aviation professionals in order to tackle the dearth of manpower in the airline industry. He spoke in Ghana at the 6th International Business Conference, with the theme: “Achieving Africa’s Entrepreneurial Success,” organised by Aspire Africa where his firm bagged the Aviation Training Excellence in Africa award and a medallion for Outstanding Leadership Qualities. Mshelia said he would be elated to see Africans rise to the challenge of flying the latest and best airplanes and the only way that can be achieved is through intense and concise training. He said that already his flying school has graduated over 30 pilots and that the firm was looking forward to graduating more students. He disclosed the plan to increase the in-house capacity of trainee candidates to 40 this year and 60 students by 2020 respectively. He said, “Training has been a passion of mine and it is my goal; now our goal at Mish is to actually give back to the industry that nurtured us by grooming and training the next generation of pilots as well as aviation administrators in the region.”
Remodelled Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos
Infrastructure Upgrade At Airports To Boost Passenger Facilitation stories by nkem osuagwu, Lagos
air traffic management in order to accommodate that capacity. So every member state is expected to The International Civil Aviation invest in order to accommodate Organisation (ICAO) has ap- traffic growth,” Aliu said. proved the infrastructure upgrade In another development, the at Nigerian airports, stating that Aviation Professionals Square Tathe expansion and remodelling ble has condemned recent attack are essential to prepare the air- on the aviation agencies, stating ports for the expected increase in that they were a distraction to air traffic into the country. blackmail chief executives of aviaThis is coming following the tion agencies for monetary gains. The coordinator of the group, projected increase from 15 to 16 million passenger movement at Capt Usman Shehu Idris, stated Nigerian airports by the end of this in Lagos while speaking with 2014, a number that would con- newsmen. He said it was hypotinue to grow following the coun- critical for some members of the try’s rebased economy which will national assembly to state that attract more foreigners to Nige- there has been no development ria even as more Nigerians are ex- in the industry when some of pected to travel locally and over- them actually attended the commissioning of the remodelled terseas. The president of the ICAO minals in Lagos, Benin and Enugu council, Dr Bernard Aliu, further where they praised the progress said every ICAO member country in the sector. is expected to improve its airports Meanwhile some workers in for the expected growth the aviation indusin air traffic globally, try have called on adding that the growth the Senate Comis a significant contrimittee on Aviation bution to the economic to breakdown the and social development N174 billion debts of such country. owed contractors handling the airport “The growth is a posremodelling projects itive thing because it Supervising minister by the Ministry of ensures contribution of aviation, Samuel Aviation in order to to economic and social get a clearer underdevelopment, but it is also a challenge. The implication standing of how the debts were is that you need more infrastruc- incurred. The coordinator of Congress tures for airport operations, and
every ICAO member country is expected to improve its airports for the expected growth in air traffic globally, adding that the growth is a significant contribution to the economic and social development of such country
of Aviation Unions and Aviation Professionals Association, Sheri Kyari, who spoke on behalf of the workers, said the scale of work being done at the airports is expected to gulp huge amounts of money, adding that the projects are visible and so could be identified and the debts aligned to each project. Kyari said this should not be used as an excuse to abandon the projects because the facilities would be worse off than what they were before the remodelling work started if they were abandoned now. He remarked that though the debt is huge, it is relatively less than the debts incurred by government in projects in other sectors that are far less than what is being done in the aviation sector. He listed some of the projects to include the “14 perishable cargo terminals where agriculture produce will be processed and exported overseas by farmers, two terminals at the old General Aviation Terminal (GAT), which have been completed, a new GAT for private jet operators as well as the on-going work at the Hajj Camp all in Lagos. He said, “Expansion project is going on at the international terminal of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport; 12 passenger terminals are under construction at various airports.
National Assembly Insists On Standard Airport Terminals Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation have insisted that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Ministry of Aviation must ensure that standard and functional terminals are built at Nigerian airports to account for the $500 million loan from the Chinese Government for the construction of five new terminals in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Kano. The House Committee Chairman on Aviation, Nkiruka Onyejeocha, and other committee members who took a tour of the projects in Lagos, last week, were particularly not happy at the size of the new terminal which appears to be significantly smaller than the current terminal in use built more than 30 years ago. “We believe there is no way we should have anything less, especially when we have borrowed this kind of money repayable within 20 years. We want to make sure that every kobo is accounted for so that we would not have a substandard airport terminal” she said.
Aviation organisations Address Aircraft Tracking Options The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has confirmed that the Aircraft Tracking Task Force (ATTF) expects to be in a position to deliver draft options for enhanced global aircraft tracking to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in September this year. Following the disappearance of the MH370, the IATA announced plans to establish an industry task force to develop recommendations to improve global flight tracking. The commitment was to have them available by the end of 2014. The IATA invited the ICAO and key stakeholders throughout the aviation industry to participate in the ATTF. The first meeting of the group was held on May 13, 2014. Separately, but in conjunction with the IATA, the ICAO held a special multidisciplinary meeting on Global Flight Tracking on May 12-13.