By Tayo Alabi
The Nigerian government on Thursday declared that it will reciprocate travel restrictions by countries that have not opened their airspace its flights.
Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Aviation spoke at the briefing of the presidential task force on COVID-19 in Abuja.
Specifically, he said countries in the European Union will be affected.
Recall Nigeria announced that it will reopen its airspace to international flights on August 29, saying flights will be restricted to the Lagos and Abuja airports.
Sirika was represented at the briefing by Musa Nuhu, director-general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
“On the list of countries (that are banned), we are working on the comprehensive list, but the main one that came up is when the EU opened their borders effective 1st July, Nigeria was among the list of 54 countries that were not allowed to enter the EU,” he said.
“To my understanding, as the situation changes, they are going to look at the list and change it. But so far, we don’t have any contrary information to that first one that Nigeria is banned from going to the EU.
“So, as we open our airspace, we are going to apply the issue of reciprocity to those (EU) countries.”
The minister said only a few international flights will be allowed at the onset of international flight resumption as test runs of the protocols put in place at the airport to ensure safe operations.
He also said the number of inbound international passengers will be limited to 1,280.
