Air Peace has announced suspension of all its flight operations from Saturday as part of efforts to check spread of the Coronavirus, a move it described as in the nation’s best interest.

In a statement signed by its Chief Operating Officer, Mrs. Toyin Olajide, the company said, “It is with a great sense of responsibility that we have decided, in the best interest of our nation, our passengers and workforce, to suspend scheduled flight operations for 23 days effective 23.00hrs on Friday (an hour before Saturday morning) March 27, 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This difficult decision was reached in order to, not only, support efforts of the Federal Government and other stakeholders in curbing the spread of this virus in our nation but also to protect our teeming passengers and our staff from becoming victims of the pandemic.”

The airline said that it has to be equally noted that passenger traffic in the last three weeks has slumped drastically as a result of this pandemic, saying it would be very unwise to continue raking up avoidable costs it could ill afford.

“While the suspension is on, we are however, willing to do special flights both for the government and our people. Normal scheduled flight operations shall resume on April 20, 2020. We regret any inconvenience this decision may have caused our teeming passengers,” the airline also said.

This was coming as Aero Contractors yesterday suspended its operations in the interest of safety and Ibom Air reduced its capacity by 36 per cent as the COVID-19 impact worsens.

Meanwhile, Arik Air has announced suspension of all scheduled commercial flight operations effective 11pm on Friday, March 27, 2020.

The management of the airline said it took this decision in order to mitigate the risk of the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) to its customers and staff, and hopes to resume services as soon as feasible.

Customers who have confirmed tickets have been advised that they could still use their tickets when the airline resumes flight operations. Such tickets could also be modified at no extra charge.

Chief Executive Officer of Arik Air, Mr Roy Ilegbodu said: “The safety and well-being of our valued customers is paramount at this period of health emergency. We implore everyone to keep safe and abide by all directives issued by governmental authorities.

“We sincerely regret any inconvenience this suspension may have caused our customers.’’

Similarly Dana Air said it is also halting all operations from the midnight of Wednesday, March 25 for a period of two weeks just as he management of Azman Air has also announced the suspension of their operations and all flights within Nigeria from the midnight of Friday, March 27. This suspension will last for the next two weeks and will be reviewed afterwards.

Max Air in a letter titled Suspension of Operation, gave the same reason but stated that their suspension will commence from March 28, 2020 (Saturday).

The letter signed by the Station Manager, Bello Ramalan read,” Due to the global pandemic COVID-19 also known as coronavirus currently affecting the country, I am directed to inform you that Max Air has suspended its operation from 28th of March 2020 to 11th of April 2020.  We look forward to inform you the next action taken.”

Sun