Only airlines from countries that allow flights from Nigeria will be allowed to fly into and out of Nigeria as the country will enforce the principle of reciprocity in granting permission to airlines to resume operations into the country as it opens its airspace, the Federal Government said on Thursday.
Speaking at Thursday’s briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, said Nigeria’s position was informed by the ban placed by some countries on flights from Nigeria
The minister, who was represented by the Director-General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Capt. Musa Nuhu, argued that the decision was taken in the interest of Nigerians.
He 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.
The Council of the European Union had opened its borders to 15 countries, excluding Nigeria.
The minister also said airlines would be informed on arrangements that had been put in place to ensure that the resumption of flights were without problems
For now, only a few flights per day would be permitted, adding 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 also stated that inbound international passengers would be limited to 1,280.
