One of Nigeria’s domestic carriers, Air Peace, is expected
to leave for China today to evacuate Nigerians willing to leave the
country as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A source in the
airline confirmed that the flight would take off today and may return
early Tuesday morning, making it the first domestic carrier to be
deployed in the evacuation of Nigerians since the pandemic started.
The
Federal Government last week designated Air Peace to carry out
evacuation flight on Thursday, May 14, to bring Nigerians who were
stranded in Canada with the flight plan to airlift passengers from
Toronto and Cagliari back to the country but the Canadian authorities
refused to give it landing permit, causing the entire operation to be
postponed.
But informed source from the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs disclosed that the Canada High Commission had already opened
talks with Ethiopia Airlines, which has been airlifting Canadian
citizens from different parts of Africa to Canada to deny a Nigerian
carrier the opportunity to airlift its own citizens.
But the
Federal Government,through the Ministry of Aviation and Foreign Affairs,
insisted that all evacuation flights should be conducted by Nigerian
carriers. A document sourced from the Canada High Commission directed
that passengers should pay $2, 500 to Ethiopian Airlines; while Air
Peace charged $1, 134 and 319 passengers already made payment to it.
The
directive from the Canada High Commission asked the would-be passengers
to pay for Flight ET3900 from Lagos to Addis-Ababa that would depart
from Lagos by 1:00 pm Nigerian time on May 18, 2020.
The
directive asked the passengers to use the booking code: ”LOSYYZ”, valid
only for May 15, 2020. Aviation experts like Dr. Gbenga Olowo,
President of Aviation Round Table (ART), commended the Minister of
Aviation, Captain Hadi Sirika, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Godfrey Onyeama, for insisting that a Nigerian carrier should be allowed
to airlift the evacuees.
“The ART strongly supports the FG for
maintaining its position that a Nigerian carrier should evacuate
Nigerians from Canada and any other country. This is not a commercial
flight; this is emergency flight operated under a force majure
situation. This does not require commercial agreement or Bilateral Air
Service Agreement (BASA). But what they want to do is to intimidate Air
Peace and deny Nigeria the opportunity of its own airline to evacuate
Nigerian citizens.
The Nigerian carrier is using a very good
aircraft, a Boeing 777 ER (extended range), which is very good for the
operation,” Olowo said.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Airspace
Management Agency (NAMA) has denied reports that it has abandoned the
implementation of Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) automation and
exposed its personnel to the COVID-19
Responding to a statement
from the Aeronautical Information Management Association of Nigeria
(AIMAN) alleging that NAMA management has neglected the implementation
of the AIS automation, thereby exposing personnel to Covid-19 pandemic,
the General Manager, Public Affairs, Khalid Emele, said the allegations
are false.
He said the joint pilot briefing offices where the AIS
automation will operate from are simultaneously being installed with
eight offices fully completed as another batch of equipment for
installation landed on the seaport and is being cleared in Lagos.
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