By Anthony Isaac
As preparation reaches to gear on the resumption of flights across airports, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika says physical distancing will be observed on all flights.
Sirika, who spoke at the end of flight simulation exercise at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja conducted by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), government was mindful of the need to make the flights economical and profitable for airline operators.
The Minister explained that “the flight simulation is to achieve five things: firstly it is to maintain physical distance with each other.
“Secondly, it is to wear protective materials such as face mask and face shield, thirdly, It is to maintain hygiene, fourthly, it is to clean the area and surfaces and that is a function of the robot itself apart from identifying the passengers.
“Lastly, it is to also seat in a environment that is clean and hygienic maintaining physical distancing. So we can board the aircraft decontaminated so we don’t contaminate others. All of the things that has happened here is to ensure we don’t spread Covid-19”.
He stressed that the authorities are “ensuring efficient facilitation of passengers so time is not wasted in adopting the new normal.
“We will announce all the protocols again before opening. But you need to be at the airport three hours ahead of your flight.
“The experience is quite nice but it takes a bit of time which is why you will need to be at the airport three hours before your local flight.
“For international flight, we may do five hours”.
Speaking further, he explained “what we have demonstrated here in a mock manner a sick person. You saw how the area was condoned off, the sick taken away to safe area and the scene disinfected.
“You saw the health workers in their PPEs come around to evacuate the sick person. You also saw that if you are served tea or beverages, you pick it yourself in a disposable cup. All these is to adhere to the new normal.
“Everything for me in this demo exercise worked very well. We came and began maintaining physical distance right from the outside. All the markings are there, and we respected that.
“During the checking procedure, we were shielded from the check-in officials, we got our boarding passes and during boarding, we detached our boarding passes and dropped the other end without physical contact. So contacts with people have been reduced so we can remain safe,” he further noted.
Speaking on the protocol inside the flight he said: “There will also be social distancing in the aircraft. But new ideas are coming on board on how to remain seated to make the carbon economical okay and to ensure we don’t infect each other.
“Those new norms are coming and we will implement them in such a way that flights are profitable. WHO and ICAO have developed protocols of the sitting”.
Recall that flight operations were suspended over three months ago in a bid to avert the spread .of the virus but there are plans to resume operations again
The simulation exercise which began around 8am had 51 passengers go through all the safety protocols before boarding the Aero Contractor B737 flight which operated at about 11:20am.
A 1.5m physical distance marking, two hand wash areas, bags disinfecting area as well as strategic placement of hand sanitizers were observed during the simulation exercise just as port health workers were seen taking temperature levels of intending passengers too.
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