The Federal Government of Nigeria has suspended domestic flights resumption which was to start by June 21.
Barely three days to the scheduled resumption of domestic flights across the country, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), has told Nigerians that they may have to wait a bit longer, as the sector is not yet fully ready to reopen.
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Capt. Musa Nuhu, Director-General of NCAA who stated this on Thursday while responding to questions from Journalists at the daily press briefing of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19, said that despite pressures coming from stakeholders, the aviation body will not rush to reopen.
The NCAA boss explained that with the reports it has received from operators, it is not yet “feasible” to reopen. He added that the industry had been grounded for over three months, hence the need to ensure that all aircrafts are checked, all pilots assessed, and all security systems put in order. “The NCAA will not approve the start of operations until we are sure and we confirm that we are ready to start in a safe, secure and organized manner. To do otherwise would be disastrous for all of us. We are not too far, we are close, but there is need for time for us to ensure that we are ready to start work.
“We are going to go to each operator to verify what they have given to us as their restart plan. A lot of the service providers have provided very good documents, while some provided inadequate documents which were sent back to them.
“Significant progress has been made but there is still a lot of work to be done. We have to implement systems to ensure that the aviation sector is not a venture for mass transmission of Coronavirus,” he added.