By Kayode Oyero The Federal Government on Sunday says it will review all its existing bilateral air service agreements with oth...
By Kayode Oyero
The Federal Government on Sunday says it will review all its
existing bilateral air service agreements with other countries including its
BASA with the United Kingdom.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, made this
known in a statement shortly after the announcement that the British
authorities refused a Nigerian airline, Air Peace, landing permit to operate a
repatriation flight scheduled to depart London Heathrow airport on Monday.
The PUNCH had earlier reported that the planned evacuation
of Nigerians stranded in UK amid the pandemic suffered a delay due to this
factor as the flight is now billed for Gatwick airport on Tuesday.
The Spokesman, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ferdinand
Nwonye, had disclosed in a statement that a UK airline, Air Partner, will now
operate the flight.
Findings by our correspondent showed no fewer than 2,789
Britons have been repatriated home from Nigeria amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
They were evacuated on 12 special flights most of which were operated by
British airlines, according to information by the British High Commission in
Nigeria.
Conversely, further checks showed that less than 600
Nigerians were evacuated from the UK between April and June 2020.
Reacting to the development, the minister said, “Having been
allowed to carry out one very successful evacuation of Nigerians from London at
very low fares, Air Peace in coordination with the Federal Government and full
knowledge of the UK authorities scheduled two additional flights.
“All the arrangements were made including payments, only for
the UK authorities to withdraw landing rights close to departure despite strong
representations by the Nigerian Government including pointing out the hardship
that would be caused to hundreds of Nigerian evacuees.
“Air Peace could have just refunded the passengers but
exceptionally, patriotically and altruistically agreed to find an alternative
carrier acceptable to the UK authorities to carry out the evacuation a day
later than scheduled but for much higher fares.
“These higher fares could legitimately have been passed on
to the evacuees but Air Peace bore this huge cost itself. This is to let the
aggrieved evacuees know that the objects of their grievance should neither be
Air Peace nor the Nigerian Government.
“They should rather be eternally grateful to Air Peace. The
Nigerian Government will review its Air agreements with various countries as a
result of the unacceptable treatment of Nigerian carriers during this
pandemic.”
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