…Clarifies travel restrictions on 13 countries
The Federal Government of Nigeria has restricted all International flights to Lagos and Abuja international airports just as it clarified flight restrictions placed on 13 countries as as result of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
A document with reference NCAA/DG/AIR/11/16/103, dated March 19, 2020: with the subject matter: Clarification on flight restrictions into Nigeria due to COVID-19 pandemic and signed by the Director General of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt Musa Nuhu, stated that the Federal Government is restricting entry into the country for travellers from the following 13 countries: China, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, United kingdom and United States of America.
To ensure that the restriction is carried out to the letter, the Federal Government required that all persons arriving Nigeria who might have visited any of the aforementioned countries fifteen days prior to such arrival will be subjected to self-isolation and testing for 14 days.
It added that the flight restriction is also applied to all flight crew from the affected countries.
Ir also requested that all operators wishing to operate into Nigeria must operate with two sets of flight crew (augmented crew); one set to operate into Nigeria and the other set to operate out of Nigeria.
It added that effective from 00:01hours on Saturday March 21,2020, Only Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos will open to and accept international flights irrespective of the type of operation while Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu and Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, will be closed to all international flights.
The Director General therefore urged all operators to comply with these restrictions
It would be recalled that members of Airlines Operators of Nigeria ( AON) during a stakeholders meeting with the management of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) on how to stop the influx of coronavirus COVID-19 into Nigeria, requested that Federal Government should reduce its gateway airports to two to ensure that the gateway airports are properly monitored and prevent the flow of coronavirus into the country
