By Kelvin Osa Okunbor
Hundreds of Americans scheduled for evacuation 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 hinted that the US nationals, who had been checked-in by the airport authorities, were seen collecting their baggage from through arrival baggage belts with the plan to go back home.
An 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-fly permit.”
Overflight permits are authorisations from Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAs) to overfly any country’s airspace.
Overflight permits differ from country to country in terms of regulations and airspace coverage area.
Read Also; Air France airlifts 399 nationals out of Nigeria
According to global aviation requirements, overflight 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.
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