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Business News of Sunday, 25 July 2021

Source: punchng.com

Coronavirus: Concerns as Nigerian airlines, others face fresh setback

The airline said the suspension was in line with the Federal government’s travel restriction The airline said the suspension was in line with the Federal government’s travel restriction

Some stakeholders in the aviation sector have expressed concerns over the fresh setback brought on by the Delta variant of COVID-19, which has been confirmed in Nigeria by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

According to the NCDC, the Delta variant has been detected in over 90 countries and is expected to spread to more countries.

Air Peace recently announced the suspension of its Lagos-Johannesburg flights due to the surge of COVID-19 in South Africa. The airline said the suspension was in line with the Federal government’s travel restriction.

Last month, Turkey suspended flights from South Africa, Bangladesh, Brazil, India and some other countries where the variant had been detected.

A member of the Aviation Round Table, a think-tank in the Nigerian aviation industry, Mr Olumide Ohunayo, noted that the economy was already in a bad shape due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said in a telephone interview with our correspondent that with the detection of the Delta variant in Nigeria, domestic and international air travel would drop.

He said “The Nigeria economy is battered; aviation also suffers. Now that the Delta variant is here, I think it is the international travel that would mostly be affected.

“The domestic travel in Nigeria has continued to grow since after COVID-19, although we are yet to attain the level of the pre-COVID era. We will continue to survive in the aviation industry. We have gone past the days whereby all flights were grounded and there were no operations.”

The President, National Association of Nigeria Travel Agency, Susan Akporiaye, told our correspondent that before the pandemic in 2020, the contribution of the travel agencies to the Nigerian economy was N347.10bn, adding that it had fallen below N180bn.

Recalling the troubles faced by domestic airlines during the travel restrictions last year, the spokesperson for Dana Airlines, Kingsley Ezenwa, noted that airlines were grounded, incomes were not coming in and the staff were forced to stay at home.

He said, “Engineers were working, but flights were not moving. All the leases on aircraft were paid despite not making any income. Engineers were working because you have to keep the aircraft running to ensure they were safe all through the period of the restrictions.

“Aviation is the key driver of the economy, and when there are restrictions, the economy would also shut down too.”