Updated: Omni Air International denied flight right to evacuate US citizens from Nigeria

 

Hundreds of Americans scheduled to be evacuated from Lagos were left stranded this morning at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

The US nationals who had already check-in by the airport authorities were seen collecting their baggage from through arrival baggage belts with the plan to go back home .

A top official of one of the aviation agencies told Woleshadarenews that the flight to be operated by Omni Air International on charter operations  was ‘cancelled due to the inability of the airline get over-fly some permit

Overflight permits are authorizations from Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAs) to overfly that country’s airspace.

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These differ in terms of regulations and airspace coverage area, depending on the country. It’s always important to check over-flight permit requirements in advance with your 3rd-party provider for the planned route of flight.

A total of 637 French and German citizens were yesterday evacuated from Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos by their governments.

 

Air France’s A330 airplane which was the first to land departed at 13.56hr while Lufthansa German Airline departed with her nationals at 15.46hr.

Before their departure, the Germans underwent airport security formalities and screening for COVID-19  as they awaited the Lufthansa flight which landed few hours after for the evacuation under ‘emergency’ and ‘humanitarian’ flight operations.

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Wole Shadare