By Francis Ajuonuma with agency report
The Federal Government is set to restrict airlines coming from Canada, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia, into Nigeria from tomorrow, December 14.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, yesterday in Lagos, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). The government decided to reciprocate restricted flights from Nigeria into those countries over the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron.

The Federal Government had repeatedly kicked against the ban on Nigeria by the UK, Canada, and Saudi Arabia after the outbreak of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Sirika stated that countries that placed a travel ban on Nigeria due to the Omicron COVID-19 variant lacked a moral right to have their airlines fly into Nigeria on commercial operations.

He said, “President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration would also place the United Kingdom, Canada, and Saudi Arabia on a red list over the outbreak and spread of the Omicron variant. “There is also the case of Saudi Arabia that put Nigeria on the ban list. On Sunday, I participated in a meeting with the COVID-19 task force. “We have given our input that it is not acceptable by us and we recommended that those Canada, the UK, Saudi Arabia, and Argentina also be put on the red list.

“As they did to us if they do not allow our citizens into their countries; who are they coming, as airlines, to pick from our country? They are not supposed to come in. I am very sure in the next three days; Monday or Tuesday, all those countries will be put on the red list of COVID-19.
“Once they are put on the red list, which means they are banned, of course, their airlines will be banned. I’m so sorry, we are going through a difficult moment, but we have to do it in the interest of our country.”

He stressed that airlines of the affected countries remained banned and the countries placed on Nigeria’s red list.

Sirika, however, apologised to Nigerians intending to travel to those countries but said the Nigerian government’s decision was in the interest of the country.

The Canadian and the UK government had imposed travel restrictions on citizens of Nigeria. The decision was taken following an increase in the number of cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 across the world. The UK is the third country to impose a travel ban on Nigeria after Canada and Singapore.

The outbreak of COVID-19 had led to various forms of disagreements between the Federal Government and some nations, particularly in the aviation sector.

For instance, on Friday, Emirates announced the suspension of operations between Nigeria and Dubai until both countries resolved the fresh diplomatic row.

The Dubai-based airline suspended all its flights to Abuja and Lagos after the Federal Government retaliated against the UAE’s treatment of Air Peace and cut Emirate’s slots from 21 to one.

In a travel notice on its website on Friday evening, the UAE flag carrier said the suspension will start on Monday (today) until when Nigeria and the Arab nation “solve the ongoing issue”.

The UAE aviation authorities said the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority’s (NCAA) action to limit Emirates’ flights to once in a week is not justifiable.

According to the letter, UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) said “the action taken by the NCAA regarding the Air Peace’s approval at Sharjah is “not in line with the spirit of the agreed air services arrangements between our two Nations.”

But in a swift reaction on Saturday, Air Peace rejected the claims made by GCAA on why the country decided to deny its flight slots in the Middle-East country.

In a letter to the Aviation minister by its Chief Operating Officer, Oluwatoyin Olajide, Air Peace said, “Our attention has been drawn to a letter written to you by the UAE Minister of Economy who also doubles as the Chairman of their GCAA. The said letter is dated December 10, 2021and referenced GCAA/C/29-2.

“Sir, we wish to state that Air Peace, as a responsible corporate citizen of Nigeria, has utmost and unflinching respect for the exalted office of the UAE Minister of Economy and nothing will ever distract from that.

“However, we take very serious exception to that letter. We believe that the Minister and the Chairman of the Board of the GCAA may have been misinformed of the true position of the issues in discourse as no one in such an exalted position and office would deliberately push out such an untrue statement. He has our respects, but his letter has misinformed the public about the real facts against us.

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“We do not see what wrong Air Peace has done in this whole saga. We are the ones being wronged and now we are being attacked from a quarter we least expected.“In aviation, there are things one cannot lie about.

Operating into and out of an airport is one of them. When did such flight operations occur? Which slot did we operate? For an airline to conduct scheduled operations into and out of an airport, there are agreements signed with several parties, executed, and implemented. There is a need for the authority to provide the Ground Handling Company that handled the scheduled operations in Dubai Airport (DXB) for Air Peace.

“Air Peace has only operated flights into Sharjah Airport alone. The letter went further to deliberately damage our perception in the eyes of the unsuspecting public by stating “it would be unreasonable for an airline to expect any airport to maintain their slots when they ceased operating at that airport.”