FG impounds aircraft of UK based airline operator, gives reasons

Nigeria has impounded an aircraft belonging to Flair Aviation, said to be a UK based aviation company.

The company’s plane was seized after it was found operating a commercial flight to Nigeria.

This contradicted the approval granted the airline to operate humanitarian flights.

COVID-19. Flair Aviation, a UK company, was given approval for humanitarian operations but regrettably we caught them conducting commercial flights. This is callous! The craft is impounded, crew being interrogated. There shall be maximum penalty. Wrong time to try our resolve!??

— Hadi Abubakar Sirika (@hadisirika) May 17, 2020

Nigeria banned commercial flights in March as part of measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika, confirmed the seizure on his official twitter handle.

He said the crew of the flight are also being interrogated.

He promised maximum penalty for the offence.

Flair Airlines is a budget airline, with operations in Canada, as well.