Denial of over-flight permit stalls evacuation of US nationals

Kelvin Osa OKUNBOR

HUNDREDS of Americans scheduled to be evacuated from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos to United States capital, Washington DC, had their hope dashed as the airline, Omni Air International, was denied over-flight permits by some African countries.

An Immigration source hinted that the US nationals, who were already checked-in by the airport authorities, were seen collecting their baggage from arrival baggage belts with the plan to go back home.

The Immigration source hinted that the flight to be operated by Omni Air International on charter operations was “cancelled due to the inability of the airline get over-flight permit.”

Over-flight permits are authorizations from Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAs) to overfly any country’s airspace.

Read Also: Police, Air Force take over MMIA toll gate

Overflight permits differ from country to country in terms of regulations and airspace coverage area.

According to global aviation requirements, over-flight permits are mandatory requirements to be procured in advance third party provider for any  planned route of flight.

Meanwhile, 637 French and German citizens were on Thursday evacuated from Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos by their governments.

Air France’s A330 airplane, which was the first to land, departed at 13.56hr while Lufthansa German Airline departed with her nationals at 15.46hr.

Before their departure, the Germans underwent airport security formalities and screening for COVID-19  as they awaited the Lufthansa flight which landed few hours after for the evacuation under ’emergency’ and ‘humanitarian’ flight operations.