NANTA Begs Government To Lift Ban On International Flights

Bearly one week after the Federal Government of Nigeria opened its aerospace for domestic flight activities, pressure has continued to mount on it to also lift the ban it placed on international flights.

As the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA) is tired of endless waiting on Government to reopen the nation's border for international flights, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the apex aviation regulatory agency has insisted that the time is not ripe to resume international operations, even as it stated that the decision was beyond it.

The Director-General of NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu made this known in response to pressure by travel agencies in the country for international flights to resume.

At the NCAA industry restart webinar held on Tuesday, July 14, travel agencies made a passionate appeal to the authority to lift the ban on international flights.

The President of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA), Susan Akporiaye, and her predecessor, Bernard Bankole, spoke on behalf of the travel agencies which constitute the downstream sector of the aviation industry.

Akporiaye said since evacuation flights were being carried out virtually every day, since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Government could lift the ban on international flights even if it would allow few flights per week.

One of the travel agents at the meeting said, "If we could manage evacuation flights this way and guaranteed their safety, why can't we take in international flights which have prepared well ahead of time to ensure safety on board."

Responding to the concerns of the travel agencies, the NCAA DG disclosed that the Federal Government had started working on public health protocols for international flights.

He empathized with the travel agencies for the huge losses they were incurring, saying NCAA as an agency also generated 85 percent of its revenue from international flights.

Travel agents across the country have been crying over the huge losses they have incurred as a result of the ban imposed on international flights due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. These agents have all closed their offices for more than four months now and many of them have no other means of livelihood. If countries with the worst cases of coronavirus could open their borders for international flights, why can't our government do the same before hunger kills everybody? The industry is worst hit by the virus and 95 percent of the agents did not benefit from the CBN's COVID-19 relief fund.