As the country prepares to reopen its airspace for commercial flight operations, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority says many of the airlines have yet to fully meet the requirements for resumption.
Nigeria’s airspace and airports were shut in March following the outbreak of the novel COVID-19 infection, but essential flights have since been operating.
On Monday, the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 approved resumption of domestic flights “as soon as practicable” but “in line with existing international and local guidelines on COVID-19.”
In preparation for resumption of operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, NCAA had on Saturday organised a test flight to-and-fro the Lagos Airport and the Abuja Airport.
But in a statement on Tuesday by the NCAA Director-General, Musa Nuhu, the Authority said many of the local airlines in the country had yet to submit their safety risk assessment.
He said, “The NCAA has reviewed the status of all airline operators’ preparation for the airline industry restart and discovered that several airlines are still lagging in submitting safety risk management.
“The NCAA has determined that all personnel whose licences had expired from 1st April 2020 can continue to exercise the privileges of their licences and/ratings for another extended period of up to 31st July 2020. This is to enable the airlines to comply with the conditions and limitations of the exemptions and give ample time to NCAA for the renewal of those licences.”