Aviation Daily!

The European Union has decided that from Wednesday EU borders will be reopened to citizens from 15 non-EU countries, including Canada, Morocco and Australia, but not the US, Brazil and Russia. China is on the list, but subject to a reciprocal agreement, still pending. The unanimous decision by the European Council is not legally binding, so states can choose not to open up to all those countries. Diplomats spent five days debating the list, amid varying pandemic concerns. The so-called "safe travel destinations" are, besides China: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay. The UK and four other non-EU states - Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway - are automatically included as "safe".

The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) on Saturday conducted a test run of robots at the International Airport in Lagos. The robots are expected to facilitate passengers processing and reduce human interaction as much as possible. If successful, the robots would be deployed at other airports in the Country as well.  The robots are expected to conduct temperature checks, passenger profiling and as well as checks for dangerous goods on travelers. In other news, the Managing director of FAAN ,Captain Rabiu Yadudu also announced that as part of the measures to ensure safe travel and passage of passengers in the Airport terminal, no two flights would be allowed to depart at the same time. As at of the time of this report it was not yet clear how this would be achieved as Captain Yadudu also insisted that no airline flight schedule would be disrupted.

Several bodies are putting plans and test operations in place in response to the federal government's initiative. Airlines, Handling companies and numerous agencies are all coming together with exercises to meet up with the aviation minister's requirements. As part of preparations, Air Peace deployed all its aircraft to the skies, flying to Abuja, Port Harcourt and back to Lagos without passengers. These flights were aimed at ensuring that the aircraft are in tip-top condition, having been grounded for close to three months though they have been under very strict storage maintenance. The spokesperson of the airline, Stanley Olisa, who disclosed this to journalists, said the shakedown flights were part of the measures the airline has developed to guarantee the safety of both passengers and crew when operations resume. He noted that the aircraft have been in storage mode for a couple of months and extensive maintenance checks have been carried out to keep them up to the required

The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) moved it's corporate headquarters to Abuja yesterday. This was announced in a press release by Mrs Henrietta Yakubu the General Manager Corporate Affairs. This was done to comply with the directive from the Federal Minister of Aviation for all agencies in the sector to move their headquarters to Abuja. The managing Director for FAAN, Captain Rabiu Yadudu ,Directors and other critical staff members have since relocated to Abuja. The directive was issued since the 4th of may as indicated by a memo from the ministry.  A letter dated May 4, 2020 with the reference number: FMA/PMD/7061/T/4 with the heading: Relocation of Aviation Agencies’ Headquarters to Abuja, signed by Muhammad Shehu, Director, Human Resource Management on behalf of the ministry gave the agencies 45 days to relocate their headquarters to Abuja. In the days to come, the impact of this directive would be felt in the industry as the movement was aimed at ensuring operation

In preparation to resume flight operations in the Nigerian Airports, the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has put in place some structures to help improve social distancing, along with measures to protect airport users from the corona virus pandemic. Structures in place are hand sanitizer stands along with wash hand basins at various points in the premises, stickers on the floor to describe how people should stand in order to maintain social distancing and lots more.  Pictures are attached below. These are all in readiness to resume flight operations and to fight the Corona virus pandemic.

The Federal Minister of Aviation in Nigeria Hadi Sirika, announced during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, that the industry is not ready to resume flight operations. He was  represented by the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority(Ncaa), Musa Nuhu, Sirika said the agency would not approve the resumption of flight operations until it gets confirmation that operations could be carried out in a safe and organised manner. “We never said aviation is going to start definitely on the 21st, we were supposed to put a report back based on what we have and we have some work to do. As such, June 21 is not a feasible date to resume operations. “Despite the pressure from different quarters, we will not start operation on any date until we are sure we can start operation in an efficient manner.”  He explained that there was a lot of work to be done before operations could resume in the aviation sector. “Prior to this mandate from the preside