Nigeria’s minister of aviation, Hadi Sirika, has said the country will invoke the principle of reciprocity on international flights and bar flights from countries that do not allow Nigerian flights to land due to coronavirus restrictions.
The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu, issued the threat on Thursday, on behalf of the minister, during the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing.
Nuhu said the civil aviation authority will meet on Monday to determine the countries to be affected by the ban when Nigeria resumes international flights on August 29.
A spokesman for the minister said Sirika was referring to landing rights for aircraft, and not the nationals of the countries.
The director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority said that authorities are still drafting the list, but added that the European Union is among those barring Nigerians.
Nigeria earlier this week announced plans to resume international flights on Aug. 29. All but essential international flights were halted in late March in an attempt to stem the spread of the corona virus.
The resumption will begin with four flights daily coming in to both Lagos and Abuja, but Sirika said that the initial number of passengers would be limited to 1,280 a day.
Nigeria has 50,488 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and has recorded 985 deaths so far.