The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has recommended that the federal government should ban flight operations from certain countries with high spread of COVID-19 and expressed the hope that government would give serious consideration to the recommendation.
Also, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has called on the federal government to stop with immediate effect international flight operations to the four major airports in the country and allow only Abuja and Lagos airports to process international flights.
NCAA also recommended that international flight operations should be limited to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos in order to have firm control of the movement of passengers for efficient check on the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
This was confirmed by the Director of Consumer Protection, NCAA, Adamu Abdullahi who said that the regulatory authority has already submitted the recommendation to the 12-man Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, which yesterday evening went on close-door meeting to deliberate over the recommendation and others.
Similar, AON has also called on the federal government to stop with immediate effect international flight operations to the four major airports in the country and allow only Abuja and Lagos airports to process international flights.
In a statement signed by the Chairman of AON, Captain Nogie Meggison, the operators said: “The Airline Operators of Nigeria has called on the federal government to take urgent steps by immediately announcing a comprehensive travel restriction to only two entry points for Nigerian travelers coming into the country and foreign nationals of countries that have been confirmed to have over 100 cases of the COVID19 V popularly known as Coronavirus.
“The call came on the heels of a strategic response meeting held between the Managements of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Nigeria’s Representative to ICAO, members of Port Health and Chief Executives of airlines and helicopter operators to develop and implement measures to prevent the influx of the virus into the country as well as curb its spread.
“Nigeria is about the only country in Africa yet to take a decisive action in putting in place strict measures to stop the inflow of the virus into our shores. We can say for sure that if the situation escalates in Nigeria other countries of the world would not hesitate to stop us from flying into their country. We would like to appeal to Government to stand tall by putting Nigeria first at this time and take an immediate action by restricting travel into Nigeria,” AON said.
Source: THISDAY
