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Nigeria suspends Emirates airline flights over COVID-19 tests

Published 05/02/2021, 15:56
Updated 05/02/2021, 16:00
Nigeria suspends Emirates airline flights over COVID-19 tests

By Libby George and Alexis Akwagyiram
LAGOS, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Nigeria has suspended Emirates
airlines flights because the carrier sought to impose an
additional COVID-19 test for passengers from Nigeria, the
aviation regulator said in a letter seen by Reuters on Friday
dated Feb. 4.
An aviation ministry spokesman on Monday told a news
conference that the United Arab Emirates, in addition to
requiring a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test before flying
from Nigeria, was adding an extra requirement of having a rapid
test four hours before departure.
He said airlines that insisted on the additional test would
be suspended until an appropriate structure was put in place to
conduct the second test within four hours of departure.
In the letter to the airline's country manager, dated Feb. 4
and titled "suspension of Emirates airlines operations to
Nigeria", the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said the
airline had carried passengers from Nigeria using rapid antigen
tests "conducted by laboratories that are neither approved nor
authorized by the appropriate regulatory bodies".
The NCAA, in its letter, said the decision to suspend
Emirates was taken because the airline failed to heed a request
to either accept passengers without the rapid test until the
appropriate infrastructure was in place or suspend flights to
and from Nigeria until that time.
Emirates did not immediately respond to an emailed request
for comment outside normal working hours.
This month, United Arab Emirates authorities said the
airline's passengers flying to Dubai from Nigeria would not be
permitted entry if they transited via a third country and could
only enter on direct flights, according to industry sources and
a travel notice on the RwandAir website.


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