The Federal Government says it will enforce the principle of reciprocity in granting permission to airlines to resume operations into the country as the Nigerian airspace reopens for international flights on August 29.
Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika stated this on Thursday during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
The minister, who was represented by the director-general of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Musa Nuhu said the decision was taken in the interest of Nigerians.
What this means is that only airlines from countries that allow flights from Nigeria will be allowed to fly into and out of Nigeria.
The Council of the European Union had on July 2 opened its borders to 15 countries, excluding Nigeria.
Sirika said: “On the list of countries (that are banned), we are working on the comprehensive list, but the main one that came up is when the EU opened their borders effective 1st July, Nigeria was among the list of 54 countries that were not allowed to enter the EU.
“To my understanding, as the situation changes, they are going to look at the list and change it. But so far, we don’t have any contrary information to that first one that Nigeria is banned from going to the EU.
“So, as we open our airspace, we are going to apply the issue of reciprocity to those (EU) countries.”
Sirika said that for now, only a few flights per day would be permitted, adding that they would operate as test runs of the protocols put in place to ensure the safe return to international operations.
Inbound international passengers, according to him, would be limited to 1,280.
The minister said only this number would be allowed to fly into the Lagos and Abuja airports once international flights resume on August 29.
