Nigeria’s leading carrier, Air Peace, has announced
it would suspend its flights to Sharjah (Dubai) and some destinations in the
West Coast, and streamline services on domestic routes in response to the
adverse effects of the pandemic, Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).
The airline company said it took the crucial
decision after an emergency meeting with its top management staff to review its
operations in the face of the disease, which the World Health Organisation
(WHO) has already declared as pandemic.
The management also announced several measures
aimed at addressing the adverse effects occasioned by the virus.
The Chief Operating Officer (CEO) of Air Peace,
Mrs. Toyin Olajide, after the emergency meeting, said the airline took the
decision to cut down its flight operations following a tremendous decline in
passenger traffic and the need to cut costs.
According to her, “Air Peace, as a result of the
adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on passenger traffic, has today taken the hard decision to downsize our flight operations in order
to cut the mounting costs occasioned by the pandemic.”
She remarked that as a result of the development,
the airline would be suspending its operations to Dakar, Senegal, and Monrovia
in Liberia as well as cutting down its Freetown, Sierra Leone, operations and
Banjul in The Gambia operations to one flight a week.
She disclosed that the airline would also reduce its
operations to Accra from Lagos to just two flights daily and suspends its Abuja
to Accra operations.
"On the domestic scene, we are reducing our
frequencies while at the same time, restructuring our operations by deploying
our hoppers to more airports.
"Our international operations into Dubai
through Sharjah International Airport shall be suspended from next week as the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) has shut its airports to nationals from other
countries, including but not limited to Nigeria," she added.
Meanwhile, following the outbreak of COVID-19
pandemic, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has taken steps to
protect its workforce from its scourge.
According to a statement signed by its spokesman,
the Authority has issued detailed guidelines for officers of the agency who
have recently travelled abroad to self-isolate for 14 days among other measures
upon their return to Nigeria.
This is just as the Authority issued a directive
for the compilation of details of all NCAA staff already on any official
assignments or training in a country with high transmission of COVID-19.
This is to be forwarded to the Office of the
Director-General and the General Manager of Aero Medical Standards.
As a result, all pending inspections, training and
various exchange programmes involving foreign trips are suspended forthwith.
The statement said: “To complement all these, the
Authority has also directed that the 2020 promotion exercise for staff
scheduled to hold on April 4, 2020, will be suspended till further notice. This
postponement is in line with advice given by the WHO for organisations to avoid
large gatherings as part of precautionary measures to curb the spread of the
virus,” NCAA said.
It also enjoined all travelling public and other
stakeholders to comply with all the directives issued to curb the spread of the
global pandemic.
No comments:
Post a Comment