We Did Not Say Flights Will Resume June 21 – PTF

National coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu has said the Task Force never said domestic flights will resume on June 21.

Aliyu who gave the clarifications on Thursday during the briefing of the Task Force in Abuja said domestic airlines were given a window of three weeks to prepare that “We did not say flights would definitely start on June 21.“

“What we said to the aviation authorities is; you need to let us know from the 21st of June onwards if you are ready to start opening the skies. We didn’t say 21st of June skies open.

“We gave them a window of three weeks to prepare and I believe they are still preparing. We did not ask them for updates how things are going but we expect them to get back to us.

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“The aviation industry is highly regulated. There are certain things they have to do before they start flying such as retraining of pilots, re-calibrating the aircraft and ensuring safety at the airport to make sure people are safe.

“We don’t have an update on that yet but we expect them to come to us by the 21st of June. If they come back to us by the 21st of June and they say we are ready on wards, we will open the skies for domestic travellers and that’s when we will address the issue of interstate restrictions and curfew but at the moment, there is no plan right now to say, 21st of June, here we go. It’s aspirational if anything” he said.