COVID-19: British airline penalised for breaching Nigeria’s aviation guidelines

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, said on Sunday the Federal Government had penalised a British airline, Flairjet, for operating commercial flights into Nigeria without approval.

Sirika, who disclosed this on his Twitter handle, said the airline contravened section 1.3.3 of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations 2015.

According to him, the Flairjet’s “callous misdemeanor” has been reported to the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority and the country’s (UK) High Commission.

He said: “Flairjet was found to violate our Civil Aviation Regulations IS 1.3.3(a) Table 2(IV)7(a) and IS 1.3.3 (a) Table 2(VIII)(4). The maximum penalty for each is N500,000:00K. We caused them to pay and reported their callous misdemeanor to UK CAA, MFA, and the UK High Commission.”

The federal government had in March closed all the country’s airports to international flights in response to the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.

This closure which was initially to end on April 23 was extended for another four weeks on May 6.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, who announced this, said the federal government extended the flight ban after due consultation.