Major airports in the country are set to reopen in the “next few days” after weeks of closure as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
The airports are the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Ikeja; Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja; Aminu Kano Arport, Kano and the Port Harcourt Airport, Choba, Rivers State.
The Director-General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, disclosed this after a virtual event organized by the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ART) titled; “COVID-19: The Challenges and Opportunity for Nigeria’s Aviation Value Chain, During and Post”.
He said the decision to commence flights at the airports, is to avoid chocking the “system” and stated the NCAA worked with representatives of airlines and ground handling companies before forwarding the proposal to the Minister of Aviation for approval.
“We may resume domestic operations with four or five airports and we hope to expand as we get better. We don’t want to rush everything at the same time and get it choked up…. “Every money is important and we cannot achieve the two-meter physical distance. We are hopeful in the next few days we can resolve those issues and allow the airlines to commence operations. “We have made our suggestion and recommendations and we are awaiting feedback from the Ministry of Aviation.”
The Federal Government had on March 16 placed travel ban on 13 countries, including China, United States and Italy that had recorded over 1,000 cases of Coronavirus. On March 13 it shut all airports for one month and later extended it by two weeks. On May 6, the government further extended the airports’ closure by four weeks until June 7.