DEVELOPING AIR NAVIGATION SERVICES PROVISION TO FACE THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION AND EFFICIENT SERVICE DELIVERY

INTRODUCTION
There is an inherent need to provide certain services to air traffic similar to other forms of transportation so that it can be conducted in a safe and orderly manner. For air traffic, two aspects impose specific requirement on these services and these are; Once air traffic is under way it cannot be held en route for prolonged periods of time and can only be terminated by a landing. Unlike any other form of transport, aviation activities worldwide are directed by consideration of international character.

Further more air transport, particularly at international level because of its importance to trade and tourism, assumes such a role in world economic development that its disturbance generally results in consequences not restricted in the area where they occur but have repercussions that extend beyond that area.

It is therefore of prime importance that both the planning and execution of air traffic services (ATS) is done so that optimum uniformity is maintained to the largest possible extent. The ICAO normally pursues this objective through its efforts in worldwide standardization and in regional planning of air navigation services.

Traditional air navigation service (ANS) is provided on national basis with different systems and procedures but this is gradually giving way to bilateral or multilateral co-ordination among States. Examples include the francophone West and Central African States grouped under the aegis of ASECNA while Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia, and Monrovia etc still retain national character although they are trying to come under the umbrella of the Banjul Accord Group.
In the immediate past one will recall the domination of Nigerian sky by Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) alongside a number of international operators notably BA, KLM, Lufthansa, Air France etc. Air travel then was restricted to the rich and government or company officials. In the same vain, the Civil Aviation Department was responsible for the provision of ANS to support the air transport.

Then in the eighties came the liberalization with the introduction of private sector participation in the industry. This gave rise to the emergency of such private operators as Okada, Kabo, Triax, Gas, Oriental, Haka, and ADC etc. Government also embarked on development/modernization of airports such as at Benin, Yola, Sokoto, Calabar, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Ilorin, Ibadan, and Akure etc.

As laudable as these projects were, the required airspace infrastructure was lacking including the construction and equipage of control towers. The realization of this omission led to the construction of temporary towers some of which still remained operational to date. As the industry continued to grow, it soon became apparent that the existing airspace and airport infrastructure could no longer sustain the growing aviation activities. ICAO therefore constituted a panel on future air navigation service (FANS) to produce a new plan to meet the growing demand. This led to the CNS/ATM concept. The general objective of the new ATM system is to enable aircraft operators meet their planned times of departure and arrival and adhere to their preferred flight profiles with minimum constraints and without compromising agreed level of safety.

DEVELOPING AIR NAVIGATION SERVICES:
. Under the plan, the present ground based and analogue communications, navigation and surveillance systems will be replaced by more efficient satellite based digital systems. Communications between pilots and air traffic controllers presently achieved by voice radio, using a combination of HF and VHF radios will in the future shift away to data communication, although in Nigerian Airspace, communication will remain largely by voice radio during the planning period.

The use of data communication will allow flight management computers and ground based air traffic management computers to communicate directly for coordination and position reporting. When implemented, the air-ground data-link is expected to be via VHF data-link in existing Nigerian Airspace and via satellite data-link oceanic airspace. It is expected that during the later stages of the planning period, the Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN) will be introduced allowing full interoperability between different air and ground systems. The Aeronautical Fixed Service Communications will be improved by providing greater access to VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) and retiring the existing HF voice connections.

Navigation will incorporate satellite systems giving a global accuracy of the order of 100m of actual position with the capability of achieving metre accuracy with augmentation techniques. This will enable early retirement of some terrestrial navigation aids, providing a cost saving, which will be used to fund implementation of advanced systems. The availability of secure communication and accurate navigation systems can be combined to provide global aircraft position information, and air traffic management surveillance displays. Such surveillance will gradually reduce the need for radar, eventually replacing it. This is particularly so for the en-route phase of flight. The concept underlying the provision of air navigation and air traffic services by NAMA will change from one of control to the more strategically based concept of airspace and air traffic "management".

THE VISION OF ONE GLOBAL HARMONISED ATM SYSTEM
From a global perspective the current ATM system is mainly a patchwork of individual ATM solutions strongly linked to national interests. This is characterized in a number of different areas viz Institutional, management, Technical, Financial and operational. This is without prejudice to the efforts of the various ICAO Regional planning groups to forge a common approach.
The current system is ill equipped to cater for the expectation of the ATM community which demand increased capacity, efficiency, and enhanced safety.
Because the Aviation Industry is changing, it requires a response from the ATM community to achieve an effective gate-to-gate operation in an information-rich environment.

'The ATM operational concept adopted by the ICAO 11th Air Navigation Conference proposes a fresh look at service delivery. The service can be summarized as the implementation of a truly global, harmonized efficient system which provides, a user with a trajectory as close as possible to that requested with safety as a given'. Air Navigation Service providers must play a key role in shaping service in accordance with the ICAO concept. The effects in the different areas are as follows:

1. Institutional:
   Decisions will be based on customer expectations, which include safety considerations, global efficiency, and cost effectiveness.
2. Management:
   Collaborative decision making together with the notion of an involved ATM community, automatically brings all the role players to the planning and implementation table. With the vision for harmonization, rationalization (homogenous) and routing areas, there is no doubt that Air Navigation Services providers will also need to draw closer to each other to realize the global concept.
3. Technical:
   Specifications should be harmonized to permit integrated interoperable, and flexible functionality to provide a global seamless airspace including synchronized implementation.
4. Financial:
   The focus will be on optimum use of resources across the entire ATM system and will include strategic collaboration among members of the ATM community. The business models will be based on all user expectations.
5. Operational:
   Pre-tactical to the tactical real time management of multiple trajectories near as possible to optimum, New concept elements seek to increase capacity by harnessing the capability of available and emerging technology.

The concept guides the future service delivery in a harmonized, responsive and responsible way, seeking to deliver the user outcomes, which could vary considerably, however with the best overall system solution possible, all with due consideration for environment and security imperatives.

A major element of the concept is the envisaged performance monitoring and management across the entire system, following and preceding safety and business considerations that will guide the implementation of the various available technologies.

THE CHALLENGES OF PROVIDING EFFICIENT GLOBAL AIR NAVIGATION SERVICE
As air traffic grows worldwide so does the demand on ATS providers increase as well as the complexities of air traffic management (ATM) and as more flights become unable to follow optimum flight paths traffic density increases. Thus the upgrading of the level of ATS becomes imperative by inter alia reducing separation minima without compromising safety.

The implementation of CNS/ATM systems are expected to provide sufficient capacity to meet not only the increasing demand but also provide additional benefits by way of more efficient flight profiles and increased level of safety.

But the technologies afforded by the new CNS systems can only be fully exploited through international harmonization of ATM standards and procedures. It is equally desirable to equip aircraft operating internationally with a set of avionics useable everywhere. It is also not expected that the service improvement can be meaningfully implemented by any one State but rather the implementation will be in contiguous regions through international cooperation and coordination. Therefore the ATM design must follow an evolutionary trend allowing for implementation at various levels of sophistication to provide services tailored to specific applications and regions.

NAMA's APPROACH;
With the creation of NAMA in 1999, and its takeoff in the year 2000, the deficiencies of the past were tackled head-on as encapsulated in the Agency's objectives, viz:

To continue to provide safe and functional air navigation services that will meet international standards.

To increase ATC capacities in order to manage the increasing air traffic volume and simultaneously reduce delays.

To enhance service quality.

To reduce cost to users.

In order to address the deficiencies, a System Master Plan (2000-2005) to serve a guide for the consequent development of procedures, facilities and services followed by a CNS/ATM Implementation Plan (2003-2015) were developed for provision of an efficient air navigation system.

Thus the following projects were planned by the Agency:
Navigational Aids Upgrade
SATCOM upgrade
AIS/AAIP/Airspace Design
VSAT
TRACON

The projects a, b, and c haven accomplished is on course but is being revived. From these projects, NAMA has been able to survey all the airports, and en route stations in the WGS 84 coordinates. The agency has also reviewed all instrument approach procedures in the WGS 84 system. It has also developed and published GNSS procedures for six airports at Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Sokoto and Calabar including SIDs and STARs at Kano, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja in which Lagos and Port Harcourt have been flight-tested. It must be noted that these procedures are at the moment overlays to the subsisting VOR/ILS approaches.
Already the Nigerian AIP is in the three part electronic format. Similarly the agency has embarked on systematic training and retraining of her personnel in the application of the various sub-sets of the new system including the RVSM expected to be introduced in the AFI region come 2006.

We are collaborating with ICAO WACAF in the implementation of CNS/ATM, RVSM and GNSS. The seminars we have had on these are cases in point.
The Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) has taken off and progressing. The project is in two phases, the initial phase and subsequent phase. It is intended to replace NAMA's surveillance systems with state- of- the- art modern monopulse secondary surveillance Radar (MSSR) systems.

The initial phase includes the implementation of an MSSR RS 970 radar system for Lagos and construction of a new Lagos ACC building that will host the Approach Control Unit.The main features of this phase are the implementation of the Eurocat 2000-C flight and Radar Data Processing System added to a Voice Switching Control System and an integrated Training/Simulator System for the training of air traffic controllers and engineers. This phase is expected to become by mid 2006.

The subsequent phase includes the implementation of additional 8 MSR RS 970 radar systems at Kano, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Talata-Mafara, Maiduguri, Numan, Obubura and Ibadan at the end of which the entire Nigerian airspace would have been covered MSR with ADS-B capability. While noting that everything cannot be said here, it has to be recognized that our efforts in the CNS/ATM Plan, the production of three part electronic AIP, TRACON project, the design of GNSS procedures est. are efforts aimed at meeting the challenges of globalization and efficient delivery of air navigation service to our customers.

NAMA is therefore poised to embrace the CNS/ATM system and expects the other stakeholders to be similarly prepared.