Airlines start cutting flights to Nigeria as red list categorisation hits aviation industry hard

FOREIGN airlines operating in Nigeria have begin initiating plans to significantly reduce their flight frequencies into Nigeria in response to the recent travel bans introduced by the UK and Canada that is certain to curtail passenger volumes significantly.

Over the weekend, Canada and the UK both introduced sever travel restrictions on Nigerians, suspending the issuance of visas among other things. With many Nigerians now more or less grounded internationally, airlines that fly into the country have no choice than to cut flights into Nigeria over the coming days and weeks.

Aside from Canada and the UK, Singapore and Indonesia had also imposed travel ban on Nigerian travellers, in response to the outbreak of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 pandemic. This in itself has led to massive cancellations of flight reservations by intending passengers who had confirmed ticket bookings for travels in December and January.

One KLM official said: “Canada and the United Kingdom are popular destinations for Nigeria travellers and these are key markets for us as international airlines operating in Nigeria. Hundreds of Nigerian passengers fly in and out of these two countries on a daily basis, so, the ban by the two countries is affecting our numbers significantly."

An Air France official added: "We used to have about 80 passengers going to London on our Lagos-Paris flight but on Monday when the ban commenced, passengers transiting through Charles de Gaulle to London were just 10 in number. This is bad for business, so we will definitely cut flights.”

One airport official added: “I learnt BA left Lagos airport with less than 50 passengers. How can a jumbo plane of such go with that kind scanty number of passengers?”

BA has already pointed out that arrivals from Nigeria would land at Heathrow Terminal Five,  where any customer whose journey terminates, would be taken on a bus to Terminal Four for processing. This, it said, would be prior to being escorted to their pre-purchased quarantine hotel, adding that the customer’s bags would also be taken directly to Terminal Four, in line with UK government restrictions.

An airline spokesman said: “All customers travelling from Nigeria must follow the UK government’s rules on arrivals from a red-list country and have a negative PCR test result within the 48 hours prior to their departure from Nigeria. Only British or Irish nationals or customers who have residence rights in the UK will be allowed to enter the UK, where they will be required to quarantine in a government facility.”