The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, says passengers on domestic flights are to arrive the airport one hour, 30 minutes more before take-off.

Sirika announced this during the Presidential Task Force (PTF) briefing, on COVID-19 on Monday in Abuja.

The review on arrival time is a reduction from the initial three hours standard set by the Ministry of Aviation and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), after the airports where reopened following the COVID-19 ban.

The minister explained that the reason for the review was because the planes have been sequenced in such a way that the crowd at the airports have been reduced drastically and hence, the decision to review the arrival time.

FAAN had earlier said that passengers, who would be travelling upon resumption of flights, must be at the airport three hours before take-off time.

This, it said, was necessary to allow time for passengers to go through the necessary COVID-19 checks before boarding flights.

The aviation agency shared the information on its official Twiter account “COVID-19 Flight Resumption Protocol for Passengers: You are advised to arrive at the airport three hours before your flight due to the new COVID-19’’.

In an earlier announcement, FAAN said persons without face masks would not be allowed entry into the airport terminal building.

It also advised passengers to maintain a two-metre distance from one another.

Henrietta Yakubu, FAAN’s Corporate Affairs Manager, had also said that escorts of VIPs would no longer be allowed to follow their subjects into the terminal.

Yakubu added that such individuals would be subjected to all health checks. (NAN)