The Captain and the rest of the crew of Air France/KLM flight that has been granted permission to evacuate Dutch, French and German citizens through Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos will not be allowed to come out of the aircraft.
This is one of the conditions given by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, to operate special flight into any of the country’s international airports.
The letter of permission from the Ministry of Aviation signed by the Director, Air Transport Management, M.S Naibi for the Minister of Aviation, said the airline must operate strictly based on the protocol guiding this kind of operation under the COVID-19 as issued by the Nigerian Aeronautical Authorities. One of the conditions is that flight crew will not be allowed to disembarked at any of the airports while the international flight restrictions last.
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Confirming this Thursday, the MMIA Manager Mrs Victoria Shinaba said: “We have one or two flights that will be coming in to pick their nationals, KLM is coming in today, there are three flights not only today, we have the approval, their crew are not even coming down, the crew will not come out at all.”
Air France/ KLM Thursday, commenced the airlifting of 260 of the three countries nationals to Paris via Lagos airport with the permission granted it by the Federal Government to operate essential flights to evacuate different nationals out of the country to Paris.
The aircraft came in through Cotonu, Benin Republic at about 2.05pm. The airline through its General Manager, in a letter sought permission for the airline to land in Lagos to evacuate Dutch and French citizens stock in Nigeria after the closure of all the major international airports to international flights.
In a reply to the request, the Nigeria Government through the Ministry of Aviation granted the permission for the Air France/KLM flight to operate on the platform of essential flights. The request by the airline is to commence the evacuation of the nationals from 26th March, 2nd April and 9th April, 2020.
