The Federal Government has placed a 72-hour suspension on outbound Emirates flights from Nigeria. The suspension was announced in a circular issued on February 4 by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
The circular
states that the suspension followed a violation of guidelines placed by the
Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
According to
the circular signed by Musa Nuhu, NCAA director-general, the airline has been
airlifting passengers from Nigeria using rapid antigen tests conducted by
laboratories not approved by regulatory authorities.
The circular
read, “Based on the foregoing and to enable the Nigerian government to put in
place the needed infrastructure and logistics for COVID-19 RDT testing for
departing passengers, the PTF has directed that Emirates Airlines should either
accept passengers without RDT pending when the infrastructure and logistics are
put in place or suspend its flights to and from Nigeria until such a time when
the required infrastructure and logistics are fully established and
implemented.
“Emirates
Airlines has not been in compliance with the two options given by the PTF as
records obtained from Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) indicates that
Emirates Airlines operated the flights from both Murtala Mohammed International
Airport, Lagos and Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja.” the circular
read.
“Emirates
should suspend its operations to Nigeria (Lagos and Abuja) effective 72 hours
from midnight on Thursday, February 4, 2021.
“During the
72-hour leeway, Emirates Airlines is only authorised to bring passengers into
Nigeria. Outbound passengers are not authorised.”
The NCAA said
additional sanctions would be imposed on Emirates Airlines for the violations
of COVID-19 protocols and the airline will be informed as to when to resume
operations.
This comes
days after authorities in Dubai released fresh travel conditions for Nigerian
passengers.
Dubai
Airports, operators of Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates,
said in a notice that they now restrict Nigerian passengers from transiting
through other airports.
It was also
stated in the notice that all passengers are required to obtain a negative
COVID-19 certificate and the PCR was must be conducted within 72 hours of the
date of departure.
The notice
was titled, ‘Dubai Travel Protocol Update –Travel From Nigeria’.
It read,
“Kindly be advised that effective from 01 February 2021, the following
conditions must be met for travel from Nigeria:
“All
passengers are required to obtain negative COVID-19 certificate. The PCR should
be conducted within 72 hours of the date of departure.
“All
passengers are required to conduct a rapid COVID-19 test and obtain a negative
result within four hours of their departure time.
“Passengers
must travel directly from Nigeria to Dubai. No passenger may enter Dubai from
any other country/station if they have visited or transited from Nigeria in the
last 14 days.”
No comments:
Post a Comment