TheCable

The federal government says it will announce a new date for reopening of airports and resumption of flights after the completion of dry run tests in Lagos and Abuja airports.

Musa Nuhu, director-general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), disclosed this during the presidential taskforce (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing in Abuja on Thursday.

“Since the last announcement, last week Thursday briefing, that Sunday, June 21, is no longer feasible for the opening of the airport, I would like to report that we’ve had significant progress in the readiness of the industry to restart,” Nuhu said.

“The gaps have been closed, but however, we still have a few gaps within the aviation ecosystem, and this will be closed hopefully in the next couple of days.

“I’ve said it and I’ll keep saying it we must get it right the first time, both on the issues of technical safety and health safety of all stakeholders.

“And one of these things we’re going to use to close some of the gaps is the dry run test of both Lagos and Abuja airports coming up this Saturday.

“After this dry runs, we’ll have a look, observe and see the gaps that might still be there and close them.

“After that, we will announce a day of restart shortly sometime next week.

“Aviation is already a very complex system on its own and by the time it threw in the COVID-19 pandemic, it already complicates a very complex system.

“We will not take any chances. We are almost there when we close all the few remaining gaps in the aviation ecosystem we will start.”

TheCable reported, on Thursday, flight resumption guidelines for passengers.

It advised that people coming to pick up passengers should remain in their car until the passenger exits the gates.