The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria [FAAN] said it has put arrangements in place on passenger facilitation and what to expect ahead of the resumption of flights.
Speaking at an aviation webinar organised by Women in Aviation [WIA] Nigeria with the theme: “Aviation: The New Norm in the post COVID”, General Manager Corporate Affairs of FAAN, Henrietta Yakubu said passengers should expect delays and long hours of checks and re-checks right from when they arrive the airport and departs.
She said escorts of VIPs would no longer be allowed to follow their principals into the terminal and such principals would be subjected to all health checks.
To this end, she said passengers are expected to leave their home early hours before their flights to go through the various checks before entering the terminal and after.
“We are going to expect flight delays, flights will experience delays from checks and re-checks. If you are travelling, I will expect a potential traveller to leave home hours before his flight. Why do I say this?
” Because there is going to be a lot of checks in front of the terminal, we have been told that some may activities and procedures will take place in front of the terminal. So air travellers are expected to leave home very early so that they can get to the airport on time.”
The FAAN spokesperson also explained that passengers should expect that airlines would charge more in terms of airfare, adding the International Air Transport Association, IATA said that there would be a 45 percent increase in fares.
Yakubu stated that the COVID-19 had brought a lot of changes to air travel and to ensure the safety of passengers and airport users the way of doing things before have to change, adding that the pandemic would make people cut down on non-essentials and lead to low demand of air travel.