Travel News

BY  Chinedu Eze

The federal government’s delay in issuing notice to airmen (NOTAM) and low passenger turnout are key factors delaying the resumption of international flights from the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano; Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa; and the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

This is just as THISDAY learnt on Wednesday that the alleged insistence by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that only Emirates Airlines would be allowed to operate to Dubai from Nigeria has prompted the Minister of Aviation to deny the Middle East airline the approval to resume flights to Abuja and Lagos.

THISDAY investigations revealed that after the special flights operated by Ethiopia Airlines and Egypt Air on April 6, 2021, from Kano to Addis Ababa and Cairo respectively, international flight service was expected to have officially opened from the Kano airport, but airlines are yet to complete their documentations to kick-off operations from there.

THISDAY also learnt that the delay in issuing NOTAM announcing that flights have resumed at the Enugu and Port Harcourt airports was also the reason why flights were yet to start from the two airports, just as Lufthansa, which operates to Port Harcourt airport was yet to express readiness to fly to that destination due to feared low turnout of passengers.

A senior official of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) who disclosed these to THISDAY said Kano airport was officially opened after the special flights by the two African airlines on April 6, but while Port Harcourt Airport has been certified as meeting all the health and other protocols for international service, Enugu, which has met the health protocols is yet to be certified because other protocols, which include markings are yet to be completed.

“Kano airport has been opened officially for international flight service, but the airlines designated to the airport have not completed their documentation. We have agreed that airlines should start operations to Port Harcourt airport because work has been completed there and the international wing of the airport has been marked, but Lufthansa, which is the only international carrier that goes to the airport, has not indicated interest to resume due to possible low traffic.

“Kano, Enugu and Port Harcourt have received Airport Council International (Africa) health accreditation, but as we are opening our airports, Europe is closing theirs. Lufthansa is doing only Abuja and Lagos for now. Ethiopia Airlines will go to Enugu.

“We are waiting for them to go to Enugu, but I cannot confirm if we have finished other protocols for the international wing of Enugu airport, but I will go to Enugu next week for the Airport Performance Evaluation, but I understand that availability of passengers will determine the decision of airlines to resume operations in these three airports,” the source who pleaded to remain anonymous said.

THISDAY also learnt from airline sources that Ethiopia Airlines has concluded plans to operate from Enugu airport, but it is waiting for NOTAM from the federal government to resume flights. Meanwhile, Sirika may not allow Emirates to resume operation to Nigeria until the UAE carrier drops the condition that it should be only the carrier that would operate from Nigeria, thus allegedly demanding that Air Peace and other carriers such as Ethiopia Airlines, Egypt Air and RwandAir should stop airlifting passengers to Dubai from Nigeria.

The Regional Terminal Manager, South West, in charge of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Mrs. Victoria Shin-Aba confirmed to THISDAY that Emirates was yet to resume flights in Nigeria.

On February 4 Emirates insisted that it must conduct Rapid Antigens Test (RDT) for Nigerian passengers travelling to Dubai four hours before they board their flights and in addition to the accepted PCR test made compulsory by the federal government.

Officials of travel agencies told THISDAY that they were fully in support of the decision of the federal government not to allow only Emirates to operate to Dubai from Nigeria, saying that travel agents would not make money and air fares would become outrageously high if Emirates was allowed to enjoy such monopoly and this would also shut the door against Nigeria’s indigenous carrier, Air Peace that operates to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

Shin-Aba also told THISDAY that until PTF on COVID-19 provides the needed infrastructure for the rapid test, Emirates would not resume operations in Nigeria.

She also disclosed that other international airlines have started flight operations and things have normalized; however, the passenger traffic has not increased. Shhin-aba added that COVID-19 protocols of other countries are not discouraging factor to travellers because “air travel is derived demand; people have reason to travel and they are ready to do anything required for them to travel.”

BY Michael Olugbode in Abuja

The federal government has deployed hidden and public cameras to all passport offices across the country to check passport racketeering and corruption.

Addressing journalists yesterday after a meeting with all passport control officers in 42 passport offices nationwide and immigration attaches in foreign missions who joined the meeting virtually, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said efforts are on to embed security operatives both seen and unseen, in all passport offices.

He said: “They will wear body cameras. They will detect and report any form of solicitations, inflation, improper communications, extortion, diversion, hoarding and other corrupt practices,” warning that those caught will be dealt with according to the law.

The minister further disclosed that an Ombudsman would also be created for members of the public to receive complaints and reports on officers trying to deviate from prescribed guidelines and subvert process.

Aregbesola said: “Therefore, I am declaring a zero-tolerance stance to all forms of touting. No applicant will be made to pay any illegitimate fees.”

He said the entire passport application process by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) would be witnessing an entire turnaround in six weeks, so as to ensure seamless, transparent, as well as accord human dignity to applicants and fulfill citizenship integrity in line with the mandate of the Ministry of Interior.

Aregbesola in his speech titled: ‘A New Dawn in Passport Application Processing’, said: “We have had several challenges in the past, including shortage of booklets, touting, racketeering, inflating the cost, passports being issued to ineligible persons, among others. It has become imperative therefore to review our operations and rejig our system in order to offer excellent services to our clients.”

Highlights of the meeting with the Comptroller-General of NIS, Mohammad Babandede; Passport Officers, as well as the attaches in Nigeria Missions abroad, According to Aregbesola, included the creation of special centres for expedited services.

“These special centres are to run on public-private partnership (PPP) basis. This has already taken off in Abuja and 10 more will be opened in coming weeks, as more of such centres will be opened all over the country. Our goal is to have one in each local government area, university campuses, institutions of higher learning and other places,” he stated.

He also said timeline would be fixed for every application, such as the collection date which will be six weeks, comparable to what is obtained in other countries, which will allow for enough time to investigate and validate personal information supplied by the applicants.

The minister said henceforth, applicants would have no basis for further communication with officers, other than to complete their application process and leave the venue, as the date for the collection of their passports or any challenge to the application, will be communicated to them.

Aregbesola, who expressed gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for his consistent support for the Ministry of Interior and all its agencies, also commended Babandede for his “tireless efforts and the unprecedented success the agency has recorded under his leadership.”

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

The federal government has deployed hidden and public cameras to all passport offices across the country to check passport racketeering and corruption.

Addressing journalists yesterday after a meeting with all passport control officers in 42 passport offices nationwide and immigration attaches in foreign missions who joined the meeting virtually, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said efforts are on to embed security operatives both seen and unseen, in all passport offices.

He said: “They will wear body cameras. They will detect and report any form of solicitations, inflation, improper communications, extortion, diversion, hoarding and other corrupt practices,” warning that those caught will be dealt with according to the law.

The minister further disclosed that an Ombudsman would also be created for members of the public to receive complaints and reports on officers trying to deviate from prescribed guidelines and subvert process.

Aregbesola said: “Therefore, I am declaring a zero-tolerance stance to all forms of touting. No applicant will be made to pay any illegitimate fees.”

He said the entire passport application process by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) would be witnessing an entire turnaround in six weeks, so as to ensure seamless, transparent, as well as accord human dignity to applicants and fulfill citizenship integrity in line with the mandate of the Ministry of Interior.

Aregbesola in his speech titled: ‘A New Dawn in Passport Application Processing’, said: “We have had several challenges in the past, including shortage of booklets, touting, racketeering, inflating the cost, passports being issued to ineligible persons, among others. It has become imperative therefore to review our operations and rejig our system in order to offer excellent services to our clients.”

Highlights of the meeting with the Comptroller-General of NIS, Mohammad Babandede; Passport Officers, as well as the attaches in Nigeria Missions abroad, According to Aregbesola, included the creation of special centres for expedited services.

“These special centres are to run on public-private partnership (PPP) basis. This has already taken off in Abuja and 10 more will be opened in coming weeks, as more of such centres will be opened all over the country. Our goal is to have one in each local government area, university campuses, institutions of higher learning and other places,” he stated.

He also said timeline would be fixed for every application, such as the collection date which will be six weeks, comparable to what is obtained in other countries, which will allow for enough time to investigate and validate personal information supplied by the applicants.

The minister said henceforth, applicants would have no basis for further communication with officers, other than to complete their application process and leave the venue, as the date for the collection of their passports or any challenge to the application, will be communicated to them.

Aregbesola, who expressed gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for his consistent support for the Ministry of Interior and all its agencies, also commended Babandede for his “tireless efforts and the unprecedented success the agency has recorded under his leadership.”

United Nigeria Airlines will begin regularly scheduled flight operations to the Domestic Wing of Port Harcourt International Airport on April 22.

The inaugural flight to Port Harcourt will depart the Murtala Mohammed Airport (MM2) in Ikeja, Lagos State at 1.30 pm, the airline stated on Tuesday.

Regular flights from Port Harcourt to the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja will depart at 3:00 pm daily while flights from Abuja to Port Harcourt will depart at 4:30 pm every day.

Head Corporate Communications of the airline, Achilleus-Chud Uchegbu, in a statement disclosed that United Nigeria will also operate regular flights from Port Harcourt to Lagos every day at 6:00 pm.

This will remain a regular schedule of United Nigeria Airlines on the Port Harcourt route, he stated.

By Alfred Olufemi

The US government travel advisory identifies some high-risk zones in Nigeria, where kidnapping for ransom, terrorism and other security threats are recurrent.

The United States government has issued a travel advisory, warning its citizens against travelling to Nigeria over the worsening security situation in the country.

This was posted on Tuesday, via MyTravelGov, a travel advisory platform managed by the Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs.

The advisory also identified some high-risk zones in the country, where kidnapping for ransom, terrorism and other security threats are recurrent.

"Reconsider travel to Nigeria due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, and maritime crime. Some areas have increased risk.

"Do Not Travel to: Borno, Yobe, and northern Adamawa states due to terrorism and kidnapping Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, and Zamfara states due to kidnapping, Coastal areas of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, and Rivers states (with the exception of Port Harcourt) due to crime, kidnapping, and maritime crime," the American government advised.

It further stated that violent crime - such as armed robbery, assault, carjacking, kidnapping, hostage-taking, banditry, and rape - is common throughout the country.

"Kidnappings for ransom occur frequently, often targeting dual national citizens who have returned to Nigeria for a visit, as well as U.S. citizens with perceived wealth. Kidnapping gangs have also stopped victims on interstate roads.

"Terrorists continue plotting and carrying out attacks in Nigeria, especially in the Northeast. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting shopping centers, malls, markets, hotels, places of worship, restaurants, bars, schools, government installations, transportation hubs, and other places where crowds gather. Terrorists are known to work with local gangs to expand their reach."

"There is civil unrest and low-level armed militancy in parts of Southern Nigeria, especially in the Niger Delta region. Armed criminality, including kidnapping and maritime crime, is also pervasive in this region."

"Violence can flare up between communities of farmers and herders in rural areas."

The advisory acknowledged the U.S. government's limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in many areas of Nigeria due to security conditions.

Kidnapping for ransom has been on the rise in different parts of the country lately. In some cases, the victims are expatriates.

Despite several promises by security agencies and government officials to curb the menace, the situation has continued to worsen.

By Yusuf Babalola

Lagos — Passengers on Friday protested against Ibom Air over alleged delay of a scheduled flight to Enugu by the airline.

In a viral amateur video obtained by LEADERSHIP, the passengers were seen shouting and hurling abusive words at the members of staff of the airline at Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2 (MM2) counter.

However, Police officers in the aviation terminal were seen mediating between the two parties.

Ibom Air, a local airline owned by Nigeria's largest oil-producing state Akwa Ibom, was launched in the second quarter of 2019.

When contacted, the chief operating officer of the airline, George Uriesi, said there wasn't a cancellation of the flight but the passengers arrived late for their flight.

"There was absolutely no cancellation of any flight by Ibom Air. Those passengers were late for their flight and arrived at the counter after check-in time to Enugu had closed.

"This is a common occurrence at our counters. The flight in question departed on time. The passengers were upset that check-in had closed when they arrived," Uriesi added.

Italy is to ban arrivals from coronavirus hotspot India, apart from Italian residents, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said Sunday.

“I have signed a new decree banning people from entering Italy who have been in India within the past 14 days,” Speranza wrote on Facebook.

“We can’t let our guard down” ahead of a limited reopening set to begin across Italy on Monday, he added.

“Residents of Italy can return but must take a (coronavirus) test before departure and on arrival and remain in quarantine” once on Italian soil, Speranza said.

Meanwhile anyone already in Italy who had been in India in the past 14 days should contact health authorities, he added.

With a new coronavirus variant spreading through its 1.3 billion people, India has become the world’s top coronavirus hotspot in recent days, reporting 349,691 new cases on Sunday alone.

In the past week, more than two million cases have been detected, a 58-percent increase on the previous seven days, according to figures compiled by AFP.

Magic sometimes resides in a box.

A train ride is a beautiful experience. Outside, you get to see the beautiful landscape transverse behind you and inside; you meet new people on your journey. Since the new ultra-modern train begun in December, routing Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan, traveling, and having a good time on a weekend out of Lagos has been made easier.

Abeokuta is a historic town and a city in Nigeria that has produced two states. It is also home to many significant figures in Nigerian history- Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s family, Prof Wole Soyinka, and former President Obasanjo.

A trip to Abeokuta will make you experience the entire culture of the Egba people. During weekends, the train from Lagos leaves at 8:30 am from the old terminal at Alagomeji in Yaba; the new mega terminal is at the final stages of construction.

train-P.C-Lara Randle

Lagos-Abeokuta Start – Ebutte Meta, Lagos; End – Wole Soyinka terminal, Abeokuta; Departs daily; Distance – 2438 miles (3924km); Duration – 1hrs 40mins.

Trip essentials: Sun hat/cap, medium backpack, sandals or hiking trainers, sunglasses, cash (withdraw enough money for the trip), water bottle/drink & snacks, power bank, camera (if you have one), and a good mood

A standard ticket to Abeokuta cost around N2000, business class and First class cost more, N4000 and N6000. The trains leave at exactly 8:30 am; it is crucial to get there early enough to purchase your ticket. Payment for a ticket at the train station in Alagomeji is only by cash. It takes around 1 hour 30 minutes to get to Abeokuta station- Prof. Soyinka Terminus stop.

Once you get to the stop, you will find that taxis are unavailable, and have to hail a taxi. To explore Abeokuta in one day, here is a guide and itinerary: On getting to the terminal in Abeokuta by 10:30 am, take a taxi to the first destination, Alake’s palace. By 11:00 am, you should arrive at your destination. The Alake of Egbaland is the traditional ruler of the Egba clan in the city of Abeokuta. The beautiful palace serves as the home to the king, who is also the custodian of the Egba people’s culture and tradition.

Central Mosque | P.C_Cassie Daves

In the Alake’s palace are different figurines of deities that protected the old Egba kingdom during the numerous wars. Opposite the palace is the centenary hall built by the Egba people to commemorate their one hundred years of peaceful existence in Abeokuta after the numerous inter-tribal wars they’ve experienced. In the building, you will find pictures of notable Egba people. From here, you can begin your walk towards the historical Abeokuta mosque, which stands out in its red-coloured beautiful architecture. The walk from the centenary to the Abeokuta mosque takes about 27 minutes (13km).

The next destination is the most popular place in Abeokuta- Olumo! A visit to Abeokuta is never complete without visiting the famous Olumo rock. This rock provides sanctuary to the people and a vantage point for meetings to map out a strategy to conquer wars. The first dwellers of Abeokuta settled here on the rocks and in caves and gradually spread out from this location. The rock still serves as the home for a few old Egba women who are the spiritual heads of Abeokuta.

By now, the time is already 13:00, and it is time to take a break. There are restaurants 1.3-mile radius of Olumo.

Have your lunch and rest.

A cave -P.C-Bola John

Now it is time to head towards President Olusegun Obasanjo’s library and museum. It is a private museum built by the former president, and it sits directly on a hill overlooking the waters. The library is a place to be as it sends you on a time journey to everything about the former president’s life; a mock-up of his presidential office then, items he owned, among many others. The library also houses a wildlife zoo.

To round up this trip, a visit to the adire market for souvenirs and watch the old traditional methods of making tie and dye. Abeokuta’s adire is known to be the best in the world.

By now, the day is heading towards the evening, and the time is about half-past 5 – time to get a taxi and head back to the terminal. The train arrives by 6:50 and leaves by 7:00. In one thirty minutes, you should be back in Lagos.

Tour of Abeokuta Start – 1.Alake Palace 2. The Centenary Hall. 3.Central Mosque 4.Olumo Rock 5.President Obasanjo’s Library; End – Adire Market; Duration – 6 hrs 40mins

The head of the European Commission said the bloc would switch policy, under certain conditions, after more than a year of mostly banning nonessential travel.

By Matina Stevis-Gridneff

BRUSSELS — American tourists who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be able to visit the European Union over the summer, the head of the bloc’s executive body said in an interview with The New York Times on Sunday, more than a year after shutting down nonessential travel from most countries to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The fast pace of vaccination in the United States, and advanced talks between authorities there and the European Union over how to make vaccine certificates acceptable as proof of immunity for visitors, will enable the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, to recommend a switch in policy that could see trans-Atlantic leisure travel restored.

“The Americans, as far as I can see, use European Medicines Agency-approved vaccines,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said Sunday in an interview with The Times in Brussels. “This will enable free movement and the travel to the European Union.

“Because one thing is clear: All 27 member states will accept, unconditionally, all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by E.M.A.,” she added. The agency, the bloc’s drugs regulator, has approved all three vaccines being used in the United States, namely the Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson shots.

Ms. von der Leyen did not offer a timeline on when exactly tourist travel might open up or details on how it would occur. But her comments are a top-level statement that the current travel restrictions are set to change on the basis of vaccination certificates.

She noted that the United States was “on track” and making “huge progress” with its campaign to reach so-called herd immunity, or the vaccination of 70 percent of adults, by mid-June.

She added that resumption of travel would depend “on the epidemiological situation, but the situation is improving in the United States, as it is, hopefully, also improving in the European Union.”

Diplomats from Europe’s tourist destination countries, mostly led by Greece, have argued for weeks that the bloc’s criteria for determining whether a country is a “safe” origin purely based on low cases of Covid-19 are fast becoming irrelevant given the progress of vaccination campaigns in the United States, Britain and some other countries.

Technical discussions have been going on for several weeks between European Union and United States officials on how to practically and technologically make vaccine certificates from each place broadly readable so that citizens can use them to travel without restrictions.

These discussions are continuing, officials in Brussels said, and it is possible that a low-tech solution would be used in the near future to enable people to travel freely on the basis of vaccination. For example, a traveler to Europe could get an E.U. vaccine-certificate equivalent on arrival after showing a bona fide certificate issued by his or her own government.

The hope, officials said, is that this step would soon be unnecessary as government-issued vaccine certificates issued by foreign governments would be acceptable and readable in the European Union, and vice versa.

The European Union itself has begun the process of furnishing its own citizens with “digital green certificates,” which will state whether the traveler has been vaccinated against Covid-19; has recovered from the disease in recent months; or has tested negative for the virus in the past few days. Europeans will be able to use those to travel without added restrictions, at least in principle, within the bloc of 27 nations.

Based on Ms. von der Leyen’s comments, the European Commission will recommend the change in travel policy, though individual member states may reserve the right to keep stricter limits. They might not permit citizens from outside the bloc to visit or might enforce restrictions like quarantines, even on visitors who have vaccination certificates.

But countries like Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Croatia that welcome millions of American tourists each summer, and greatly depend on them for income and jobs, are set to jump at the opportunity to reopen to the American tourism market with the E.U.’s blessing.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had to cancel state visit to India next week as a 'precautionary measure'

By DAVE MAKICHUK

As the rich and super rich scramble to escape the horrors of the Covid-19 surge in India, airline fares have soared along with the number of private jet charters to foreign nations.

According to a report in The London Times, at least eight private jets carrying India’s super wealthy landed in London ahead of the UK’s 4 am ban on travel from India.

Both the UK and Canada added India to its “red list” of pandemic-stricken countries.

As of Friday, any Britons returning from India must quarantine for 10 days in a government-approved hotel.

All non-British or non-Irish citizens will be banned entirely from entering the country if they have been in India in the previous 10 days.

According to a report in The Daily Beast, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had to cancel his own state visit to India scheduled for next week as a “precautionary measure.”

The last of the luxury airliners to arrive, VistaJet Bombardier Global 6000, which left Dubai Thursday to collect passengers in Mumbai, landed at 3:15 am, just 44 minutes before the restrictions took place.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has banned passenger flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days, CBC News reported.

At a virtual press conference, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said that because an increasing number of travellers from both countries have been arriving in Canada with Covid-19, all commercial and private passenger flights from those countries will be barred as of 11:30 pm Thursday night.

Cargo flights will still be permitted in order to maintain shipments of essential supplies, such as vaccines and personal protective equipment, he said.

Alghabra also said air passengers who depart from India or Pakistan but arrive in Canada via a third country will need to produce a negative result on a Covid-19 test taken at their last point of departure before being allowed to enter Canada. 

According to The Daily Beast, the private jet passengers were fleeing unimaginable horror back home.

At least 14 Covid-19 patients perished in a devastating fire that ripped through an ICU ward in one of India’s overcrowded hospitals about 70 miles outside Mumbai, the report said.

The fire that broke out around 3 a.m. Friday morning was contained and extinguished, but not before 14 patients — many who were intubated and hard to evacuate — had died.

•Nigeria to spend N1.89tn to wipe out Malaria, says Ehanire

BY  Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The Academy of Medicine Specialties, together with its Rapid-Response initiative group, has advised the federal government to shut the country’s international airports for at least two weeks to avoid the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an urgent advisory issued yesterday, the President of the Academy of Medicine Specialties of Nigeria, Prof. Oladapo Ashiru, noted that the transmission of the third wave was still active but at a low level.

Ashiru said the low level transmission was due largely to the lockdowns going on in Europe and some countries. He further stated that the ongoing transmission in the country was caused largely by those inbound passengers from India and those countries with surges in the cases reported daily.

According to him, many of them travelled into Nigeria through indirect flights. He recommended that Nigeria’s testing strategy should still be PCR-based. shiru, however, added that some other Genes should be looked out for aside from the ‘S’ gene. “There is the urgent need to enforce the use of PTF regulations of social distancing, hand sanitisers/washing and wearing of face mask,” he said.

He reported that his team found five sequences of the India B.1.617 in the country, specifically in Edo and Osun states, adding that a new B.1. 1.318 variant that emerged in Nigeria with major characteristics of other VOCs was spread out of the country in January this year and was creating havoc in Mauritius Island.

“The B. 1. 525 that we discovered in Nigeria late last year is now the dominant variant in Nigeria (spreading faster than the UK B.1.1.7). This lineage is also spreading at a super-fast speed in the UK and other European countries.

“The B.1.525 is now also the second most popular variant in Africa after the B.1.351Y V2 from South Africa. These are our most recent findings at ACEGID, Redeemer’s University, Ede,” he explained.

He recommended that Nigeria should close the international airports to all flights for at least two weeks, stressing that the third wave was affecting not only India but France, Germany, and Italy.

Ashiru also called on the federal government to be proactive. “Nigeria cannot afford to have a third wave. Only a small percentage of the population has been vaccinated. Furthermore, all the theories speculated for our immunity such as heat, sun, and other endemic immunities also apply to India,” he said.