Passengers Face Six-Month Air Travel Ban Over COVID-19 Test

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 on Monday placed six months air travel ban on Nigerian passengers who dodge the mandatory second COVID-19 test on arrival from overseas.

The PTF coordinator, Dr Sani Aliyu, while speaking at the daily briefing on COVID-19, also revealed that foreigners who failed to carryout the second COVID-19 test would have their visas revoked while leaving the country.

The coordinator also stated that over 9000 passengers have registered with the new travel hub, while over 5,000 have actually made payments through the hub, indicating that the hub was working well.

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He also explained that young children as well as those with diplomatic passports would be excluded from the second COVID-109 test.

This is even as the PTF revealed that all government operated airports in the country are now open for operations.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, while speaking at the briefing, explained that other private operated airports were to re-opened after meeting the required measures against COVID-19 and clearance from Nigeria Civil Aviation Agency (NCAA).

Sirika also stated that talks were ongoing to re-open Nigeria airspace to some of the banned airlines and countries.

The minister had stated that the principle of reciprocity will be applied to countries who banned flights from Nigeria.

Some of the countries which banned flights from Nigeria are in the European Union (EU), the EU included Nigeria on the list of its banned countries on July 1, 2020 when they opened their airspace.

Air France, Lufthansa, Ethihad airlines, Air Rwanda, Air Namibia are some of the airlines banned from coming into the country.