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  The United States has explained why she evacuated her citizens from Nigeria amidst the ravaging coronavirus pandemic, stating that the country places priority on the safety of Americans overseas. In a terse statement issued on the US Embassy Nigeria social media platforms Tuesday morning, the embassy said many Americans want to return to their country to be with their family and friends at this time. Recall that the United States Mission in Nigeria had…

  Someone once said that history doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes. Today, as all the world’s airlines face a cataclysm caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, memories of the post-9.11 period come to mind. But this crisis is far worse. Within a period of a few weeks, airlines have seen passenger demand completely collapse. For most carriers the market for air travel is actually below zero—the number of people cancelling flights exceeds the number of new…

  The Instrument Landing System (ILS) Category 3 may have been installed but the equipment may serve as a big waste of resources if the NCAA, FAAN and airlines fail to do what is expected of them to key into the vision, WOLE SHADARE writes Wasted effort? The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) may have installed Category 3 Instrument Landing System at Lagos and Abuja airports, but the inability of other agencies in aviation sector to do…

  The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said African airlines had lost $4.4 billion in revenue to Coronavirus as at March 11, 2020. Multiple flights have been cancelled or temporarily suspended across Africa as airlines struggle to cope with falling demand following the spread of coronavirus. Already, Nigerian carriers like their counterparts in the region are faced with the reality of the pandemic. Since the past one month, flight operations have been hampered by low…

Air France to airlift another set of nationals April 2 Less than one week after French Government evacuated 260 of its nationals and others from Lagos airport another batch of evacuees were airlifted from Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos to Israel. A charter plane which was deployed took off from the airport at 11.55hrs via Abuja to Israel. The airplane carrying 87 persons, 70 Israelis evacuees and 17crew operated under ‘Essential ‘Flight with the permission of the…

    Overland Airways said it would  temporarily shelve its flight operations from Saturday, March 28, 2020 to Sunday, April 5, 2020, as part of efforts to contain the spread of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.   However, Overland Airways Cargo services and Charter services will be available during this period to support the essential travel needs.   The airline will resume scheduled passenger flight services on Monday, April 6, 2020.   According to the airline, COVID-19…

Air France this afternoon airlifted 260 of its nationals to Paris via Lagos airport with the permission granted it by the Federal Government to operate essential flights to evacuate different nationals out of the country to Paris. The aircraft which came in via Cotonou came in at 2.05pm and with the pre-boarding formalities completed, the nationals boarded the aircraft which took off at about 3.44pm Nigerian time. The airline through its General Manager, in a…

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) urged G20 leaders to act quickly to support the aviation industry in order to prevent irrecoverable damage to international connectivity arising from the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). In an open letter to the G20 Presidency, IATA’s Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac emphasized the essential role that air transport will play in facilitating the recovery of the global economy. Noting that the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting government-mandated…

    Aircraft giant, Airbus said it is supporting efforts globally to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, stressing that it has carried out extensive work in coordination with its social partners to ensure the health and safety of its employees by implementing stringent health and safety measures, while securing business continuity.  The firm partially resumed production and assembly work in France and Spain on Monday, 23 March following a four day pause.  At the same time, operations in the…

  Carriers fly almost empty planes   Foreign airlines were the first to feel the pang of COVID-19 which has led to over 70 per cut in their operations. While they struggled , Nigerian domestic airlines operated in what looked like they were immuned to the pandemic sweeping across the globe. With demand down, the carriers have had to take the losses on the nose, electing to fly near empty planes to their destinations — rather…