Air Peace and Dana Air on Wednesday announced resumption of scheduled operations since March 23, 2020 when the federal government shut down the airports in the wake of the outbreak of the coronavirus scourge.
Air Peace said in a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Stanley Olisa said the airline had commenced its Lagos-Abuja operations in line with the federal government’s re-opening of the Lagos and Abuja airports flights.
He also announced that the carrier “has put in place reliable measures to protect both passengers and staff pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight.”
He further said the airline had thoroughly disinfected all its aircraft adding that “the flight crew are current as well as COVID-19 conscious.”
He asserted that the entire airline’s fleet is in perfect shape as multiple shakedown flights had been conducted for safety reassurance.
He added that the airline had also been operating series of ‘special’ flights, which, according to him testify to the airworthiness of the aircraft.
The airline urged its customers to embrace online booking and check-in, employ its user-friendly mobile app to minimise physical contact.
“If you’ve been following our social media platforms, you will have seen robust sensitisation content in form of videos showing what is expected of our passengers in this COVID-19 dispensation,” said Olisa.
He stressed that passengers must always wear their face masks before entering the airport terminal and on board.
Besides, Olisa said passengers are expected to submit themselves for temperature checks before boarding.
“If your temperature reads above 37 degrees, you’ll be denied boarding. No loitering on the aisle of the aircraft. Hands must be sanitised and no more meals on board. This is to reduce crew-passenger contact. Flying will be somewhat different but we can guarantee your safety,” he said.
On the other hand, Dana Air in a statement by its chief operating officer, Mr. Obi Mbanuzuo said scheduled services will begin on Thursday, July 9.
He said the airline will operate three daily Lagos-Abuja flights while the date for the resumption of Port Harcourt and Owerri services will be announced in due course.
“Dana Air is ready to fly safely again from the 9th of July. We have worked round the clock with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to achieve this safe resumption of flights and we are introducing other initiatives soon in line with the present realities and the need to minimize contacts at the airport.
”We have disinfected all our aircraft, provided all our staff with the recommended Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), alcohol-based hand sanitizers have been made available at our check-in, boarding gates and onboard the aircraft for guests and we have an optimized cleaning protocol in place as recommended by the World Health Organisation, (WHO),and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). We have also created a boarding strategy which will give our passengers some sense of safety onboard our aircraft.
”We are distinctly positioned to reduce the impact of the concerns you might have, starting from proper maintenance schedule, pre-flight cleaning and boarding, to in-flight service and disembarkation — all aspects of our flights have been optimized for the safety and well-being of our guests”
”To stay ahead, our guests are advised to book their tickets online, use our self service at MMA2 or download the Dana Air app for booking and reservation.
“Also in line with the new health protocols at the airports, we have advised our guests to arrive at the airport at least three hours to their flight. They are also required to wear a face mask at the airport and onboard our flights,” said Mbanuzuo.
