COVID-19: Aviation regulators to determine flight resumption – FG

The Federal Government says the civil aviation regulator, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) will determine the resumption of domestic flights in the country based on their preparedness.

The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Dr Sani Aliyu, said this at the daily news conference on Thursday in Abuja.

It was reported that the government had in March, shut the nation’s airports and airspaces as part of efforts to curtail the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

Aliyu said the PTF was yet to receive any updates from the aviation sector on its preparedness to resume flight operations.

Recall that the PTF coordinator had earlier said the aviation industry was requested to start developing protocols for domestic flights to resume anytime from June 21.

“What we said to the NCAA is that they need to let us know from the June 21 onwards, if they are ready to start opening the skies,’’ Aliyu said.

He added that NCAA was given a window of three weeks to prepare and “they could still be preparing’’.

The coordinator stressed that they (regulators) were not asked for updates on how things were going but were expected to get back to the PTF.

“The aviation industry is highly regulated.

“There are certain things they have to do before they start flying; such as retraining of pilots, recalibrating the aircraft and ensuring safety at the airport to make sure people are safe.

“We don’t have an update on that yet but we expect them to come to us by the June 21,’’ he said.

He, however, said that if they come back to say they (NCAA) are ready, then “we will open the skies for domestic travellers and that is when we will address the issue of interstate restrictions and curfew.