Still no decision about restarting flights in Nigeria
The coordinator PTF COVID-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu gave his assessment at a Press Conference after going through the disembarkation process at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA). The team arrived with the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika on an Aero contractors flight from Abuja after undergoing the same process at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport.
He said,” Aviation is a highly regulated sector and this is the new normal. Aviation is a highly regulated industry and one of the reasons why we wanted aviation to go first. Looking at the way that security and everything else has changed. Aviation has done spectacularly well, they have shown what they are able to do as they are highly regulated. They have shown competence
Things have changed and things have changed because we have a disease killing people. ”The aviation industry industry has shown what they have done as an industry and now it is left to Nigerians to do what they need to to be safe. While aviation has done tremendously well, what will protect you is yourself and we equally will make sure Nigerians can be safe when they fly."
Also speaking on the restart, Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika said aviation was ready to go. ”We want to assure the public that once we restart, there will be sanitizers, there will be where to pick the bags. We have trained our staff to ensure the physical distancing, we have guided people sufficiently. We have reduced the amount of people that are on hold. I am very satisfied and happy the remaining one which is the 5% is to see these surfaces cleaned continuous and that will happen once we restart we are ready with the chemicals and all and the other one is the baggage and we will see how that will be by the time we recommence. So for me I a,m 90-95% happy that we are good to go. On when we are going to open, I think like the last time when we are good to go we’ll go. Once everything is ready we will. I told you there are two components of this, there is the health component and there is the technical component and this thing is not as easy as you see. and let me also say that 90% of what we do in civil aviation the passenger will never see. You never know whether our VOR is working you never know when our landing system is working, you never know when the communication is ready, you just simply don’t know."
“So most of these things are things passengers don’t see and so we are doing a great job. so we ensure once we open, we are set to open, I don’t want to b give a date but I am sure we are getting there.”
On palliatives, the minister said in conjunction with the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Ministry of Finance the amount for the palliative will be announced soon.
” Government is coming with the palliative very soon in conjunction with the CBN and the Ministry of Finance, by next week we will come out with the amount and palliative will be announced within the week. Within the economic sustainability plan. It will go round the entire civil aviation but may not be necessarily be cash like people expect.”
On how they intend to maintain the physical distancing, the minister of Aviation said that President Muhammadu Buhari has given a directive to stop orderlies of very important persons, highly placed Nigerians not to come into the airport to avoid crowded-ness.
On the flights with the Chairman PTF was the Honourable Ministers of: Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, State for Health, Dr. Olorunnibe Mamora, State for Education, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, the National Coordinator, Presidential Task Force, Dr. Aliyu Sanni, the Director General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Capt. Musa Nuhu, the Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Capt. Rabiu Yadudu, Chairman, Air Peace, Mr. Allen Onyema, amongst several other stakeholders.
