The Federal
government says it would be also be banning flights from the European nations
just as they have banned flights from Nigeria into their country.
As part of measures
to contain the spread of the Coronavirus in its region, the European Union in
June this year released a statement listing some countries that are banned from
flying into any of the countries in the region, and Nigeria was included.
At the daily
briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 on Thursday, August 20, the
Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, announced that the Federal government will
be reciprocating the EU's decision. Airlines from the European Union would not
be allowed to fly into Nigeria once the International flights resume operations
in Nigeria on Saturday, August 29.
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.
“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.” he said
The Minister
announced that as International flights resume operations, inbound
international passengers would be limited to 1,280.
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