Nigeria impounds British commercial aircraft for flying into the country

The Federal government has impounded an aircraft belonging to Flair Aviation, a United Kingdom-based aviation company for operating a commercial flight against the humanitarian operations it was given approval for in Nigeria.

Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika confirmed this on his official twitter handle, saying the crew is also being interrogated as there shall be maximum penalty for the offense.

Sirika tweeted that the company, Flair Aviation, was authorized to conduct humanitarian flights but was caught operating commercial flights.

The Minister further explained that in addition to the confiscated aircraft, a fine would be imposed on the company for the contravention of FG’s ban on commercial flights as part of measures to curb the importation of COVID-19.

He said “Flair Aviation, a UK company, was given approval for humanitarian operations but regrettably, we caught them conducting commercial flights. This is callous! The craft is impounded, the crew being interrogated. There shall be a maximum penalty. Wrong time to try our resolve,” the minister stated in his tweet.