ARIK Air announced this weekend that it would resume services between Lagos, Nigeria and Johannesburg, South Africa following Friday's suspension of flights.
The decision to suspend the daily B737-800 service was taken due to an ongoing and protracted dispute with Port Health Authorities over Yellow Fever documentation being presented to authorities at OR Tambo by Nigerian and West African passengers, many of whom were being detained and had been refused entry in to the country in recent months.
Arik Air took the decision to re-commence with operations over the weekend to protect its passengers in the interim period until the matter is resolved. However, any passenger’s travelling between Nigeria and South Africa will be screened by Arik Air personnel prior to acceptance on the flight at Murtala Muhammed Airport.
Those passengers who have a new Yellow Fever vaccination card issued in Nigeria and who have not used that card previously (i.e were travelling to South Africa for the first time) were denied boarding on March 3rd and 4th's Lagos-Johannesburg outbound flight.
Airline and government authorities will meet March 5th to discuss the new procedural guidelines for passengers originating from
the West African region and the presentation of Yellow Fever
immunisation documentation.
Dr Michael Arumemi-Ikhide, Group CEO/ President of Arik Air, says: “There are no assurances on what the policy will be but Arik will make a definitive decision on flight operations between Nigeria and South Africa after this meeting."
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