The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has created nine new Performance Based Navigation (PBN) Area Navigation 10 (RNAV10) regional routes across Nigeria's airspace in preparation for the resumption of international flight operation in the country.

The Managing Director of NAMA, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, said yesterday that the newly created PBN routes include the UQ300- connecting Lagos to the Central African Republic; the UY604-linking Abuja, Port Harcourt to Southern Africa; the UQ181- connecting East and Central Africa to Europe through Nigerian airspace and the UQ400-connecting Southern Africa to North Africa through Nigeria to Europe.

Others include the UQ324-from Addis Ababa to Niamey through Nigeria; the UY333-from Tunisia/Algeria to Lagos; the UY87-from East and Central Africa through Nigeria to Accra and Abidjan; the UY57-from East and Central Africa through Nigeria coastal airspace to Cotonou, Lome and Abidjan as well as the UQ200-connecting Yaonde to Lagos.

Akinkuotu also disclosed that apart from the PBN routes, the NAMA has also created six new flight-plannable direct routes. These include OK DCT POLTO; ARDEX DCT EDUKO; LAG DCT XIRON DCT JOS; KORUT DCT KDA; POLTO DCT APRUN DCT DETAR/ KORUT and KELAK DCT POSIB DCT GURAP DCT IBA DCT POLTO.

He 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."

Akinkuotu said that the NAMA embarked on the above initiative to enhance regional connectivity, reduce flight time as well as fuel consumption for airlines, reduce C02 emission into the environment and reduce cost to operators as well as reducing pilots' workload and enhancing airspace capacity.