Federal Govt Lays Conditions For Resumption Of International Air Flights, August 29

Federal Government of Nigeria has itemised conditions for the reopening of airport for international flight operations, beginning from next week Saturday, August 29

Aviation minister, Senator Hadi Sirika, at a briefing of the Presidential Task Force on coronavirus said that airlines would be informed on arrangements that have been put in place to ensure that the resumption of flights are hitch-free.

He said that for now, only a few flights per day would be permitted and that they would operate as test runs of the protocols put in place to ensure the safe return to international operations.

The protocols, according to him, would be made public in due course.

Sirika said that inbound international passengers would be limited to 1,280, stressing that this number would be allowed to fly into the Lagos and Abuja airports once international flights resume on August 29.

The minister said that in resuming the international flight operations, Nigeria will observe the principle of reciprocity in granting permission to airlines to fly into the country.

The minister explained that what this means is that only airlines from countries that allow flights from Nigeria will be allowed to fly into and out of Nigeria.

He specifically said that airlines from the European Union (EU) would not be allowed into Nigeria as it had recently banned flights and visitors from Nigeria.

The Aviation minister, who was represented by the Director-General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Captain Musa Nuhu, said: “on the list of countries (that are banned), we are working on the comprehensive list, but the main one that came up is when the EU opened their borders effective 1st July, Nigeria was among the list of 54 countries that were not allowed to enter the EU.

“To my understanding, as the situation changes, they are going to look at the list and change it. But so far, we don’t have any contrary information to that first one that Nigeria is banned from going to the EU.

“So, as we open our airspace, we are going to apply the issue of reciprocity to those (EU) countries.”

On July 2, 2020, the Council of the European Union had opened its borders to 15 countries, excluding Nigeria.

According to information obtained from the EU website at the time, Nigeria was still not a part of the countries from where visitors are allowed into Europe.