A crisis is brewing in Nigeria’s aviation sector as air traffic controllers and engineers disagree over the safety and reliability of the nation’s airspace management system.

The professional associations, the Nigerian Air Traffic Controllers’ Association (NATCA) and the National Association of Air Traffic Engineers (NAAE), are members of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).

While NATCA, with Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) as its members, claimed that the nation’s airspace infrastructure, workforce capacity and operational safety equipment were in a state of disrepair, NAAE, on the other hand, whose members are air traffic engineers, insisted that significant upgrades and interventions in recent times had strengthened the country’s air navigation system.

NATCA had, on Sunday, declared that Nigeria’s Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) infrastructure were in deplorable conditions, arguing that the situation posed a direct threat to aviation safety.

In a statement jointly signed by its President, Amos Edino, and General Secretary, Fahad Umar, the association purported that air traffic controllers were increasingly being forced to operate under unsafe conditions.

According to NATCA, many critical systems across airports remained outdated and unreliable, compelling controllers to “work around system weaknesses that should not exist in a modern aviation environment.”

The association stressed that the consequences would go beyond technical limitations, warning that personnel were being pushed beyond safe operational limits due to a combination of infrastructure gaps, manpower shortages, unresolved welfare issues and several other challenges.

But NAAE, in a letter dated April 13, 2026 and obtained yesterday, rejected NATCA’s claims.

The letter, which was addressed to the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development and the Managing Director of NAMA, Festus Keyamo and Farouk Umar, respectively, described NATCA’s claim as exaggerated and not reflective of current realities within NAMA.

The letter was jointly signed by its President, Selzing Miri, and General Secretary, Muhammadu Shuaibu.

According to NAAE, NAMA has recently invested in modernising infrastructure across airports and stations.

NAAE acknowledged the critical role of air traffic controllers, but insisted that the narrative of widespread system failure was misleading.

According to the engineers, NAMA had undertaken significant upgrades to its CNS and Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems in recent years, stressing that these included efforts to overhaul the ageing Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) system and the deployment of Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) technology to enhance surveillance capabilities.

The association also mentioned the modernisation of control towers and continuous improvements in navigational aids and communication networks nationwide.

On workforce issues, NAAE maintained that NAMA had taken deliberate steps to address staffing gaps.