The hopes of Nigerians aiming to travel abroad through Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja on Saturday, September 5th, have been dashed after the Federal Government postponed resumption of international flight through the route.
It was gathered that many passengers had resumed to the airport earlier in the day but were surprised that there was no provision for resumption of international flight as against an earlier announcement made by the government.
At the airport, the passengers were said to have been made to understand that international flight for the airport has been postponed to Monday, September 8th, and that the first flight after the five months lockdown would arrive same day.
Confirming the postponement, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) officials at the airport said that the first flight was expected to touch down on Monday rather than Saturday as earlier announced by the Presidential Task Force on Coronavirus.
Meanwhile in Lagos, the case was not same as passengers were seen boarding flights after passing through the check points set by the government to curtail further spread of the virus in Nigeria.
Aside from that, the government has through Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) released a schedule for the partial resumption of international flights and stated that each flight cannot convey more than 200 passengers.
In a document signed by Director-General, NCAA, Musa Nuhu, and made available to newsmen, the agency explained that the limit placed on passenger airlifting was due to approved number for incoming passengers which was fixed at 1,280 per airport.
The document reads in part: “However, over the next few weeks as the number of allowed incoming passengers is increased, additional flight frequencies will be allocated to airlines in addition to accommodating any airline that meets the requirements for resumption of flight operations into Nigeria.”
“The approved schedule is based on a maximum number of 200 passengers per each incoming flight to Nigeria. There is no limit on the number of outgoing passengers,” the memo added.
