BY SEYIFUNMI LUMEKO
After Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) reopened six airports last week Wednesday for flights, it said on Tuesday that might take the next seven days to reopen others.
Capt. Musa Nuhu, the Director-General of the apex regulatory agency, on Tuesday night at a webinar on the review of Aviation restart, said before the end of Wednesday, four more airports might be approved.
NCAA suspends Sky Power Airline, grounds 15 aircraft Flights resumption: NCAA begins issuance of permits to airlines He said although all the other airports were expected to reopen on Tuesday as earlier announced by the Federal Government, it came with a caveat which was fulfilling the requirements for their reopening.
The DG said the NCAA inspectors were expected to visit some of the airports on Tuesday but they were stuck in Calabar, Cross River State due to bad weather.
He disclosed that Calabar, Benin, Yola and Kaduna airports might be approved on Wednesday while the inspection team would visit Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi, Ilorin on Thursday According to him, it would be the turn of Akure and Ibadan on Friday.
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Nuhu also disclosed that some state-run airports like Gombe would also be inspected and approved for flights if they satisfied the requirements especially the public health protocols.
Meanwhile, six airports have been reopened for flights starting with Lagos and Abuja on Wednesday; followed by Kano, Port Harcourt, Owerri and Maiduguri on Saturday.
The DG who briefed stakeholders on the industry restart during the virtual meeting said it has been so far, so good since the flights resumed.
He said the NCAA divided its inspection team into two to visit all the airports and assess their readiness for restarting, saying, “in order to do thorough jobs, we can’t do more than two airports in a day.”
Nuhu said: “It will take one week to get all the airports open,” the DG said, advising airlines to contact the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) on the status of any airport before they start selling tickets for the airport.
“Let’s proceed with caution. We should not misinform the public. Before you start advertising or arranging flights, contact FAAN to confirm which airports are open before selling tickets.”
