The Federal Government of Nigeria has said the resumption of international flights in the country on August 29 will not open the airspace for all countries to fly into Nigeria. The government says it will refuse all countries who have banned Nigerians from visiting them the right to fly into Nigeria.

Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Capt. Musa Nuhu who represented  the Minister of Aviation at last Thursday’s press briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 Control in Abuja said:

“There are certain countries that have placed a ban on Nigeria and its residents from going to their countries. In this process, we are going to determine who and who will be allowed to fly into Nigeria and the principle of reciprocity will be applied.

“The conditions you give Nigerians who travel to your country will be applied. If you ban us from coming to your country,the same will apply the other way.

“We are working on the comprehensive list but the list that is out is when the European Union (EU) opened their borders effectively July 1. Nigeria was one of the 54 countries that were not allowed to enter EU.

“By my understanding, they said as the situation changes, they will look at it and change it but so far, we don’t have any contrary information to that first list where Nigeria is banned and not allowed entry into the EU but we are also looking at other countries and as we open our airspace, we are going to apply the issue of reciprocity to those countries.”

Capt. Nuhu also disclosed that the number of passengers who will be flying into Nigeria as international flights open on August 29 has been pegged at 1280.The flights will operate into the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.