The Federal Government has said that the pilots of the impounded aircraft owned by a British company, Flair Aviation, have been placed in quarantined for 14 days.
The Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, said this on Monday in Abuja, at the 33rd joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.
This is as he said that government has been able to secure 80 percent demurrage waiver for the affected parties in the lingering crisis between SAHCOL, NAHCO Aviance.
He also apologized for referring to the British airline involved as Flairjet as against Flair Aviation that he tweeted on Sunday.
He said, “There is a company called Flairjet. I want to apologise that I tweeted in the afternoon (on Sunday) when the fasting was biting harder and we verified this as Flair Aviation. The correct name is Flairjet and it is a UK registered company.
“They have an aircraft, Legacy 600, and the registration number of the aircraft is GPRFX. Their business address is Business Aviation Centre, Terminal Road, Birmingham International Airport, West Midlands and their code is B26QN.
“This company applied severally as to operate humanitarian flights and we did approve. It is very clear at the beginning of this exercise that we defined what those flights should be: essential flights basically – cargo, medical evacuation, medical supplies, and so on and so forth.
“Unfortunately, this company decided to become commercial in their service, charging money and flying people in and out. In the first place, the whole essence of a lockdown is to ensure there is no movement of persons freely because this COVID-19 we are all spending sleepless nights,” Sirika said.
He said the government is currently investigating the matter and would soon conclude on it soon.
He said, “The crew is British nationals. The pilots are subjected to 14 days quarantine at the moment while the investigation goes on. Whatever is there in our laws will be applied to the fullest.”
The minister added that there has been a slight change in the procedure as regards flights approval.
He said, “This time around once we receive any requests for a flight, we are to get in touch quickly with the full purpose of the point of entry to see whether quarantine Space available before that flight is given approval, those details I’m sure will come in the briefing by the national coordinator, but this will be done electronically as usual through WhatsApp or email and they need to be a speedy as it is to be certainly don’t have any significant time lost.”
