The federal government has said the civil aviation authorities will determine when domestic flights will resume in the country.
The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu, during the briefing in Abuja, said contrary to report, the federal government did not say flights would resume by June 21.
Aliyu, at a previous briefing by the task force, had said the aviation industry was requested to start developing protocols that could lead to the resumption of domestic flights anytime from June 21.
But while giving an update yesterday, he said the PTF was yet to receive any update from the aviation sector on its preparedness to restart flight operations.
“What we said to the aviation authorities is; you need to let us know from the 21st of June onwards if you are ready to start opening the skies. We didn’t say 21st of June skies open.
“We gave them a window of three weeks to prepare and I believe they are still preparing. We did not ask them for updates how things are going but we expect them to get back to us.
“The aviation industry is highly regulated. There are certain things they have to do before they start flying such as retraining of pilots, recalibrating the aircraft and ensuring safety at the airport to make sure people are safe.
“We don’t have an update on that yet but we expect them to come to us by June 21. If they come back to us by June 21 and they say we are ready onwards, we will open the skies for domestic travellers and that’s when we will address the issue of interstate restrictions and curfew but at the moment, there is no plan right now to say, June 21, here we go. It’s aspirational if anything,” he stated.