MANAGEMENT OF THE IMPACTS OF SUDDEN AND SLOW ONSET WEATHER EVENTS ON AVIATION OPERATIONS IN SOUTHEASTERN NIGERIA

This study examined the impact of sudden and slow onset weather events on aviation operations in south-eastern Nigeria. The ex post facto and cross-sectional research designs were adopted for in this study. Data were sourced from both primary and secondary sources and the secondary data were hourly data on sudden weather parameters (wind, cloud cover, visibility, and precipitation) and slow weather parameters (minimum and maximum temperature) were collected from the archives of Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) for a period of 10 years. On the other hand, air traffic data were collected from the airliners while primary data were derived with the aid of distributed copies of questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, statistical diagrams and tables were used to present the data and analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, was used for analysis. The results showed that rainfall, temperature, wind and cloud cover established remarkable variation annually and monthly. Also, rainfall showed lack of consistency in most of the years, but 2013 had a similar pattern across the region whereas temperature ranged between 30⁰C and 35⁰C with Enugu recorded the highest maximum temperature. There was substantial evidence of slow and sudden weather events effects on flight operations which spatially varied across the cities investigated. The revealed effects of the sudden and slow events were delays, cancelation of flights and additional cost for travelers. There was a significant spatial variation in the sudden and slow weather events in the region at p<0.05. The study recommended training and retraining programmes acquisition of automated instruments for real time and accurate data collection, replacement of aging aircraft and weather monitoring facilities and sensitization of passengers on coping techniques with sudden and slow weather events