The Federal Government has impounded an aircraft owned by British airline, Flair Aviation, for operating commercial flights into Nigeria without approval.
The was made known on Sunday by Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, via his Twitter handle, @hadisirika.
“COVID-19. Flair Aviation, a UK company, was given approval for humanitarian operations but regrettably, we caught them conducting commercial flights.
This is callous! The Aircraft is impounded, the crew being interrogated. There shall be maximum penalty. Wrong time to try our resolve,”.
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According to Sirika, the company, which was authorised to conduct humanitarian flights into Nigeria, was caught operating commercial flights.
Sirika also added that in addition to the confiscated aircraft, the company will fined for contravening the government’s ban on commercial flights.
As part of measures to curtail the spread of covid-19 pandemic in the country, the Federal Government had on March 21 announced the closure of all the airports to all international flights.
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Despite the ban of flights, the FG still allowed essential flights including those for medical and evacuation purposes. These flights are subject to the authorisation of the Federal Ministry of Aviation and agencies under it.
In addition, the Federal Government also permitted international flights from countries willing to evacuate their nationals from Nigeria.
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