FG speaks on when international flights will resume

Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika has said that international flights would resume soon.

Speaking during the the briefing by members of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, Sirika stated that international flights would resume in a matter of weeks.

He said: “We in civil aviation want to open like yesterday. We are bleeding. We are sacking our workers, we are not paying salaries.

“We must move or fly from one point to another in order for us to remain in business but that is not the case now. So, we really want to open but we can’t open alone.

“PTF has set up a technical committee to come up with the state where everybody is happy to start.

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“If it were up to us, we won’t even close the airports but we were forced by the virus to close.

“So, we will open as soon as all of us are happy to open and I want to adopt what the national coordinator has said by saying, it will be in weeks rather than in months for international flights to resume.

“So please do not blame any of us because we have been putting efforts to ensure we open.

“We feel your pain and we know that the closure of the airports has separated families and friends and denied some access to hospitals abroad, schools and businesses.

“The continuous closure is not on purpose or punitive, it is just to ensure that we remain safe and healthy and the Government is conscious of this fact and we are all aware of the adverse effect of the closure of the airport.”

Daily Times reports that the Federal Government extended the suspension of the international flight operations in May following the increase of the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.