Further to the travel ban imposed on 13 COVID-19 most hit nations by the Federal Government on Wednesday, 18 March 2020, the leadership of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has asked the Federal Government to urgently restrict landing of international flights to only two international airports in Lagos and Abuja.
The group said the idea is based on the state-of-the-art screening facilities at both arrival points and to further stop the spread of coronavirus.
AON further argued that such restriction would allow for effective deployment of critical medical support staff and utilisation of thermal scanners by the Port Health Services.
Commenting on the restrictions and the ban on Visa on arrival, AON made it clear that the restriction should include Nigerian travellers coming into the country and foreign nationals of countries that had been confirmed to have over 100 cases of the COVID-19.
Chairman of AON, Capt. Nogie Meggison, who lamented that Nigeria, was about the last country in Africa yet to take a decisive action in putting in place strict measures to stop the inflow of the virus, stressed that “We can say for sure that if the situation escalates in Nigeria, other countries of the world would not hesitate to stop us from flying into their countries.
“We would like to appeal to the government to stand tall by putting Nigeria first at this time and take an immediate action by restricting travel into Nigeria,” Meggison said.
