Commencement of flights operation at the Benin Airport, Edo State scheduled for (today), July 15, was stalled due to the non- certification of the airport by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
Recall that the federal government shutdown flights operation in airports across the country as part of measures to contain the spread of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Following the three-month shutdown, the federal government, however, announced the reopening of the airports starting with Abuja and Lagos.
The Abuja and Lagos flights operation commenced on Wednesday, July 8, Kano, Port Harcourt, Owerri and Maiduguri airports resumed operations on July 11, while others like Benin airport was scheduled to resume on Wednesday, July 15 (today).
A representative of one of the airline operators, who spoke to BusinessDay in confidence at the airport said the scheduled commencement of flights operation will not take place as the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) was yet to certify the airport for flight operations.
According to him, we airlines are ready but they are not. We need everything to be prepared before airlines can commence. The level of preparedness of the airport is 50 percent.
“The VIP section is not ready, even the social distancing marks on the floor have not been extended to every part of the floor. As you can see work is still ongoing.
“Flight operations was supposed to begin today but has been put on hold due to logistic reason
“We can not have flight today because of what they are fixing”,he said.
At the airport business owners, airport staff as well as airline representatives were seen standing behind their counters, waiting for business to commence as usual.
