Update: Nigeria announces Aug. 29 for international flights resumption

The Federal Government of Nigeria has disclosed that international flight operations would resume on August 29.

Hadi Sirika, minister of aviation, announced the resumption date for international flights on Twitter on Monday.

“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,” Sirika said via his Twitter handle @hadisirika.

“Protocols and procedures will be announced in due course. We thank you for your patience,” he tweeted.

For five months, the Federal Government had shut down airports for international flights as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Some other countries have since opened their airports to international flights, but the reopening of Nigerian airspace had lingered for a while.

This situation had forced several Nigerians to travel to Europe and the United States through Cotonou in Benin Republic, Nigeria’s next-door neighbour.

Checks carried out by BusinessDay show that people have been travelling out of the country, as scheduled commercial flights are simply dubbed evacuation but exorbitant fares charged for evacuation flights had forced some Nigerians to leave for Benin Republic, seeking affordable ticket prices.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.