Ahead of the resumption of international flights from Saturday September 5, Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, has announced that airlines that failed to comply with pre-boarding guidelines would be heavily fined.
Erring airlines will be fined $3,500 per passenger for failure to comply with pre-boarding guidelines, the aviation minister said.
While speaking during the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing in Abuja on Thursday, Sirika said no hitches are expected as precautionary measures are already in place.
He also announced a list of airlines that are permitted to land in the country when flight operations resume, and those that are barred, for now.
The minister had previously disclosed that flights would not be allowed from countries that have banned flights from Nigeria as part of their COVID-19 response.
The airlines permitted to touch down in the country from Saturday include British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Africa World Airlines, Kenya Airways, Middle East Airlines, EgyptAir, Ethiopian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Air Sky, and Air Côte d’Ivoire.
Foreign airlines that are barred from landing are Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Etihad Airways, RwandAir, Air Namibia, Royal Air Maroc, Lufthansa, and TAAG Angola.
According to him, intending foreign travellers to Nigeria must have undergone a PCR test for COVID-19 within four days of departure in their country and tested negative before boarding.
Non-Nigerians that violate the government’s guidelines regarding international travel will be refused entry and returned at the cost to the airline.
Nigerian violators however will be allowed entry but subjected to a mandatory quarantine of 8 to14 days, contingent on the result of a COVID-19 PCR test done after seven days of arrival.
