Aircraft engineers under the union of the National Association of Aircraft Engineers have condemned the shortage of manpower across the nation’s airports.
The engineers also lamented the lack of operational vehicles in its stations to effectively carry out smooth operations.
The National President of NAAE, Ishaya Dung, in a chat with aviation reporters in Lagos during the commemoration of the 2020 World Air Traffic Safety Electronic Personnel Day, also revealed that dearth of personnel has greatly affected the performance of Engineers in meeting up with their statutory obligations.
According to him, the responsibilities performed rest on the shoulders of fewer engineers as a result of lack of adequate training.
He noted that as a result of the shortage of engineers, the engineers travel from Lagos to Port Harcourt and other airports when issues arise to address some challenges that surpassed the engineers on ground.
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Dung who said apart from the above challenges, the management of the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency has improved on the communication equipment across the country.
He said, “We have adequate navigation surveillance coverage within the Nigerian airspace.
“I wouldn’t say we have enough manpower but the status is not also too poor. We keep drawing the attention of the management of NAMA to some of these issues.”
Dung, however, made a call for more hands for effective coverage in the airspace.
He revealed that NAMA has 500 engineers across the airports in the country while over 150 engineers have been licensed since he came on board three years ago.
