Coronavirus: Aero Airline To Make Passengers Pay For Empty Seats, Forbids Sneezing On Flight

The Chief Executive Officer of Aero Contractors, Ado Sanusi, has revealed that if the airlines are mandated to empty a seat for safety amidst Coronavirus when they resume, Aero will charge the passengers onboard for the empty seat. Sanusi said someone has to bear the cost, and that will be the passengers.

According to Sanusi, the airline is willing to block the center seat in order to reduce the rate of transmission, but passengers will have to take charge of the cost of the seat. This will only increase the fee of passengers who are expected to pay double of the passenger service charge according to a Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) proposal.

“If we have data that shows that if we block the centre seats, it will reduce the rate of transmission then we will do that and increase the flight costs because somebody must pay for the centre seats," Samu said during an interview with Channels Television. He also stated that there will be no serving of food to passengers despite the expected hike in ticket fee.

“There won’t be serving of food because that will increase the number of times you will be contacting passengers and then the passengers would be removing their face masks to eat the food so I think it is not the best. It is a one hour flight. It is only in Nigeria that we serve food for a one-hour flight. Go anywhere in the world and you will see that hot meals are not served on one-hour flights.”

The New Normal: No Sneezing On Aero's Plane

Sanusi further warned that any passenger that sneezes or shows symptom of malaria on the Aero flight will be treated as a COVID-19 case. He said passengers with doctor's report that reflect malaria won't be allowed to board the Aero plane - this is part of the measures being taken by the domestic airline as Nigeria's aviation industry is set to resume operation this month.

“I will like to point out that if you have malaria or a common cold, do not come to the airport because there is a high possibility that you are going to be denied boarding. This is the new normal that we are going to see. The main thing for the airlines is to make sure that the airplanes are safe and that is what we’re doing and that’s why we still believe that air transportation is the safest way to travel.

“So if we see anybody sneezing, we will take him as an index passenger, we are not going to he/she has allergies. We are going to take the person as index passenger till we have handed them over to port health officials. They will be the ones to determine if he is allergic or has COVID-19." Sanusi said.

Timetable: Nigerian Aviation Industry To Resume

Nigeria will resume domestic flight on July 8, 2020, after four months of the lockdown of the Aviation Industry. However, the resumption of flight operation will only be for selected states, as some states will be eased into operation gradually according to a timetable revealed by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika.

While domestic flight will resume next week, international flight will remain suspended according to Sirika in a post on his Twitter handle. He revealed that Lagos and Abuja airports will reopen before any other states on July 8, 2020, while Kano, Port Harcourt, Owerri and Maiduguri will resume on the 11th.

"I am glad to announce that Abuja & Lagos airports will resume domestic operations on the 8th of July, 2020. Kano, Port Harcourt, Owerri & Maiduguri to resume on the 11th. Other airports on the 15th. Date for international to be announced in due course. Bear with us, please," Sirika tweeted.