Ebola: Private jet owners avoid leasing aircraft

Owners of private jets in Nigeria have become cautious about leasing out their aircraft following the outbreak of Ebola.

Although, aviation officials had been strictly mandated not to speak on issues concerning the virus, one of our correspondents gathered that most private jet owners had cut down the number of times they leased out their jets.

A senior official with one of the key agencies in the sector told our correspondent many countries had systematically stopped their carriers from flying into Nigeria, thereby heightening the panic among private jet owners in the country.

“Many foreign carriers hardly fly into Nigeria and most of them have officially announced the suspension of flights to countries like Liberia and Guinea where the Ebola virus disease is very pronounced. This is causing panic among owners of private jets and some of them are not giving out their jets to friends and even family members,” the official said.

Another senior aviation official at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport also told our correspondent that airlines like Cameroon Air had suspended their flights into Nigeria.

Pleading anonymity, he said, “We have suspended only Gambia Airline. Others that don’t come into Nigeria are the ones who suspended themselves. For instance, Cameroon Air said they were not coming here and they did that on their own.”

Asked if major international carriers, like British Airways, Kenya Airlines and Emirates, had cancelled flights into Nigeria, the official said, “They are still coming. There is no official communication telling us they have suspended their flights. At least, as at yesterday (Thursday) I know they are still flying into Nigeria but I don’t know if it has changed as at today (Friday).

“However, we do know that many countries are taking all the necessary precautions and many airlines, on their own, are suspending operations into Ebola-hit countries, especially nations like Guinea and Liberia.”

Early this month, British Airways announced the suspension of flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone following concerns about the spread of Ebola.

Dubai’s Emirates Airline also stated that it was suspending flights to Guinea. Pan-African airline Aruj and ASKY suspended all flights to and from the capitals of Liberia and Sierra Leone following the death of a Liberian passenger at the end of July in Lagos.

Officials stated that Chad had also suspended all flights from Nigeria, adding that Nigeria had stopped the Gambian national carrier, Gambia Bird Airlines, from flying into the country.

This, according to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, was due to “unsatisfactory” measures by the airline to contain the spread of Ebola.

Similarly, on August 11, Cote d’Ivoire announced the ban of all flights from countries hit by Ebola as part of steps to prevent the deadly virus from reaching the West African nation.

The country’s government said in a statement it had forbidden all “carriers from transporting passengers” from these countries. It also said it had decided “on the suspension until further notice” flights by its national airline, Air Cote d’Ivoire, to and from these locations.

At the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, an official of the Port Health Authority, who chose to speak on the condition of anonymity, confirmed to our correspondent that VIPs and private jet owners from other countries were usually not screened.

The source said, “Of course, VIPs and private jet owners flying in from other countries are usually not screened. Right now, we are only screening people that come in from West African countries, especially the troubled countries for now.

“One of the reasons for this is because we do not have enough facilities to screen everybody at once, we have to start from the troubled countries first and then move on to others.”

The Minister for Aviation, Mr. Osita Chidoka, had in his maiden briefing with stakeholders and journalists said the screening of passengers into the country was being done in stages for now.

He said, “It is not possible at this stage to screen all the passengers that come into the country because this is still a new problem in our country and we have to start from the known to the unknown.”

Source Punch