COVID-19: PTF denies fixing June 21 for resumption of flights

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Coronavirus (COVID-19) has denied fixing June 21, 2020, as resumption date for air travels in the country.

National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu, stated this during the daily press briefing by the task force on Thursday in Abuja.

Dr Aliyu said the PTF did not say airline operations would resume on June 21, but that the Aviation Ministry should prepare itself for reopening and should update the task force on the level of its preparedness on the date.

He also indicated that reopening air travels within the country would also mean a reassessment of inter-state travel restrictions and curfews, adding that whenever air travels resume, it would start with local flights.

“What we said to the aviation authority is this; you need to let us know, from the 21st of June onwards, if you are ready to start opening the skies. We didn’t say 21st of June, skies open, we gave them a window of three weeks to prepare and I believe they are preparing.

“We didn’t ask them for regular updates in terms of how things are going, we expect them to come back to us. As you know, the Aviation Industry is highly regulated, there are certain things they have to do before they start flying, such as retraining of pilots, recalibrating the aircrafts and ensuring safety across the board, as well as measures we need to impose at the airports to make sure that people are safe.

“No, we don’t have an update for that. We expect them to come back to us by the 21st of June and if they come back to us and they say they are ready from the 21st of June onwards, we will open the skies for domestic travels and that’s when we will address the issue of inter-state restrictions and curfew, but for the moment, there’s no plan, right now, to say 21st of June, here we go,” he said.