Nigerian gov't pushes ahead with new nat'l carrier project

Nigeria's Arik Air to wet-lease a B737

Nigeria, Ghana to restart international flights

Scheduled international flights from Nigeria will restart on August 29, Nigerian Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika has said.

"Glad to announce the resumption of international flights from the 29th of August, 2020. Beginning with Lagos and Abuja as we did with the domestic flight resumption. Protocols and procedures will be announced in due course," Sirika said in a tweet.

Sirika later clarified that initially, only four inbound flights per day would be permitted at each of the two gateways.

Nigeria banned all scheduled passenger flights and closed its airports to such operations on March 23. In early July, the country resumed domestic flights.

Meanwhile, Ghanaian president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said in a public address that international flights are likely to restart on September 1, 2020, due to the decline in the number of COVID-19 cases. However, he has not yet confirmed the date.

"The Ministry of Aviation, the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, and the Ghana Airports Co. Ltd, have been working, with the ministry of health and its agencies, to ascertain our readiness...

Nigeria set to resume scheduled domestic flights

The Nigerian government reopened its two main gateways, Abuja and Lagos, on July 8, with more airports due to reopen in stages on July 11 and July 15, 2020.

Following the announcement, Arik Air (W3, Lagos) said via its Facebook that it would restart flights between Abuja and Lagos on July 8, initially operating them 3x daily. 2x daily flights from Lagos and daily from Abuja to Port Harcourt Omagwa will resume on July 11.

According to the carrier's respective internet booking engines, Aero Contractors (NIG, Lagos) is set to restart services between Abuja and Lagos on July 9, Overland Airways (OF, Lagos) plans to resume services from Abuja and Lagos to Akure, Ibadan, Ilorin, and Jalingo on July 15. Med-View Airline (MEV, Kano) displays all of its domestic flights as sold out on its website and did not provide any update as to its plans.

MaxAir (Nigeria) (VM, Katsina) and Azman Air (AZM, Kano) plan to restart...

Nigeria to resume scheduled domestic pax ops from late 2Q20

The Nigerian Federal Government has announced the resumption of scheduled domestic passenger flights with effect from 0000L, June 21.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said in a statement that in the first phase, airports at Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt Omagwa, and Owerri will reopen with others to follow in due course.

"All flights to any airport outside the above five listed airports above shall comply with the existing COVID-19 protocols for approvals," the regulator said.

In the interests of social distancing, airlines will be limited to loads of 50-70% on all flights.

According to the ch-aviation PRO airlines module, Nigeria's scheduled airlines include Aero Contractors, Air Peace, Arik Air, Azman Air, Dana Air, Ibom Air, MaxAir (Nigeria), Overland Airways, and the nascent United Nigeria Airlines.