NCAA, airlines, others meet, may open airspace to domestic travel

• Airlines lie in wait for Nigeria’s aviation market
• FAAN denies post COVID-19 travel guidelines

The various aviation agencies comprising the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) are holding strategic meeting on how to ease the ban on air travel.

Woleshadarenews gathered that the FAAN and especially the NCAA are looking at the various strategies put in place by airlines, service providers and other airport users to show that they would comply with rules  that would guarantee containment of COVID-19 before the aviation regulatory body issues a post- Covid 19 travel guideline for air travellers.

Meanwhile, FAAN has distanced itself from a purported post- Covid 19 travel guideline for air travellers.

Spokeswoman for FAAN, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu in a statement emphatically stated that although FAAN was carefully and seriously working on a guideline, the release of new travel guidelines credited to the agency did not emanate from “us as it is still a work in progress”.

According to Yakubu, “Consequently, the authority will like to enjoin air travellers and the general public to disregard the content of the said release. At the appropriate time, FAAN will release the post Covid 19 travel guidelines via our official communication medium”.

It was learnt that all the agencies need to be on the same page before the Federal Government considers it necessary to open the airspace for air travel business.

It was also learnt that the government is tinkering with plans to open the airspace to domestic operations and international flight services much later just the case of Ghana where domestic air travel is in place while international air travel is yet to resume.

It would be recalled that on May 7, 2020, the NCAA directed all airlines operators in the country to notify it of their intentions to resume operations and also make themselves available for a Post Covid-19 restart plan assessment.

NCAA noted that airlines will only be granted approval to resume operations if they have satisfactorily passed the Post Covid-19 Assessment.

This development was contained in a circular on Post COVID-19 Lockdown Restart Plan Guidelines signed by the NCAA Director General, Captain Musa Nuhu and addressed to airline operators in the country.

According to the circular, ‘’all AOC Holders are required to review, demonstrate and or submit evidence of compliance with the provisions of Advisory Circular NCAA-AC-FSG-001 and its associated appendices before resumption of flight operations.

‘’All AOC holders will be required to notify the Authority of their intention to resume operations and will make themselves available to the Authority for a Post Covid-19 restart plan assessment.

‘’Upon satisfactory Post Covid-19 restart plan assessment by the authority, the AOC holders will be granted approval to resume operations by the Director General.’’

In a related development, both regional and notable foreign airlines are eagerly waiting for Nigeria to re-open her airspace to begin flight operations. Nigeria holds huge promise and market for regional carriers like Ghana based Africa World Airlines (AWA), Lome, Togo based ASKY among other carriers.

Ghana had on May 1, 2020 re-opened its airspace to domestic travel. The Ghanaian domestic air travel market is very small to sustain airlines like AWA without the Nigerian market which though relatively small compared to those of South African and Egyptian market is a huge pie for the Ghanaian and Togo based ASKY Airlines.

The commencement of domestic air travel operations comes in the wake of the disinfection of major airports in the country, including the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Kumasi Airport, Tamale and Takoradi Airports following the lifting of the partial lockdown by the President.

AWA operates into Nigeria from Accra six times a day why ASKY operates two daily flights to Lagos and four weekly flights to Abuja.

Nigerian carriers like Air Peace and Arik enjoy services to Accra. There was a time four Nigerian airlines, Arik, Medview, Dana and Aero operated to the Ghanaian city of Accra but the over saturation of the route by many airlines both from Nigeria and Ghana led to dwindling passenger load factor which made it unattractive coupled with the wrong aircraft type, B737 all Nigerian carriers deployed on the route.

A source who works with a foreign airline but preferred anonymity said Emirates and Ethiopian Airlines are ready to begin flights to Nigeria and have shown preparedness the next day any time the Nigerian government decides to re-open the airspace.

The airline in a statement said it plans to resume passenger flights to nine destinations, including routes between the UK and Australia.

The airline also announced plans to resume operations on flight services to London, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Chicago, Toronto, Sydney and Melbourne from May 21, 2020.

Wole Shadare