The Turkish Airlines has complied
with the directive of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) two days
before the suspension of its operations in the country.
The NCAA had said the airline
will not be allowed to operate in Nigeria from December 16 if it did not meet
set regulations.
The agency said the airline would
not be allowed to operate if it does not fly with the right size of aircraft
that can transport all passengers with their baggage at the same time.
In a Twitter post on Saturday,
Hadi Sirika, minister of aviation, said the airline has flown a bigger aircraft
to Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, in compliance with the
directive.
“Turkish Air operated A330 to
Abuja today as against the small B737 in apparent response to our suspension
order, we needed not to get to this,” the minister said.
On Thursday, Abdullahi Sidi,
NCAA’s director-general, gave the ultimatum to the airline in a statement
released by James Odaudu, director of public affairs at the ministry of
aviation.
The NCAA DG said recent flights
operated by the airline left behind the baggage of about 85% of the passengers
on board.
“Our airport authority has been
facing serious crises controlling the passengers at the airport whenever they
arrive without their baggage. This issue has made passengers carry out several
mob actions at our airport and it is a great threat to our airport facilities,”
he said.
“In view of all these, and a
series of meetings held with the Turkish Airlines personnel, which did not
yield any solution to this problem, the NCAA is therefore left with no option
than to direct Turkish Airlines to suspend its operations into Nigeria until
such a time when the airline is ready to operate with the right size of
aircraft that can transport all passengers with their baggage at the same
time.”
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Nice one.
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