Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, has announced the seizure of an aircraft belonging to a British company, FlairJet for operating commercial flights into the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos despite the ban on such flight operations in Nigerian airports.
The minister confirmed on Sunday that the aircraft was only authorised to conduct humanitarian flights in Nigeria and that the impounded aircraft had no approval outside humanitarian operations.
Local media reports on Monday said that FlairJet operated a Legacy 600 aircraft with registration G-ERFX into the Lagos airport after it was granted approval for humanitarian operations.
The reports added that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has begun investigations into the matter, as officials at the agency and the Federal Ministry of Aviation stated that the aircraft was not cleared for commercial flights.
According to the Nigerian officials, the country’s airports are still under lockdown to commercial flight operations.
GIK/APA