Contrary to media reports last week that Nigerian airliner, Medview was banned from flying into London, Moov LogisticsNews can report that it still flies to London Gatwick Airport.
The airline yesterday airlifted about 249 passengers from Lagos to London, thus confirming that it was not banned by the European Union (EU) authorities as reported.
Although Medview was in the category of the airlines that fell short of the requirements of EU commission to fly into their airspace, the commission gave a condition under which they can operate.
The information available on the EU transport and mobility website explained that airlines subjected to operating ban can operate in the EU using leased aircraft of another airline.
“The aircraft being used in such operations could be branded as if it belonged to the fleet of the banned airline,” it stated
Med-view, speaking through its Executive Director, Business Development and Commercial, Isiaq Na’Allah, when the new broke last week said it has secured a B777 aircraft leased from an EU-member state to boost its international operations, which will soon join its fleet, to fully counter the ban.
The London-bound flight which took off at 1:30p.m. was operated by a Boeing B747 aircraft with registration number TF-AFV, as the airline said it has not faced any inhibition to its operations to London since EU published the blacklisted airlines that were barred from operating to any EU destinations.
The Chief Operation Officer of the airline, Lookman Animashaun, also told THISDAY at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos yesterday after the takeoff of the flight that when the airline saw the report on the blacklisting of some airlines, it issued a statement to explain the true situation of things to Nigerians.
Animashaun explained that Medview was directed to lease aircraft from any EU country, which has met the safety standards of the European Air Safety Agency (EASA) and that was what the airline did, and that it would continue to operate its flights to London uninhibited.
“When we saw the publication, we issued a statement telling Nigerians exactly the true position which you have also found out today. Even the day the publication came out, the flight to London on Wednesday came back on Thursday. We are not perturbed by all those things but we are concerned about the passengers who, one way or the other, would not know the correct situation, that is why we came up with that statement to inform them that the Lagos-London-Gatwick operation is normal and that is exactly what we have done,” the airline’s Chief Operating Officer said.
He also explained that the airline had been operating the Boeing B747 since late last year and that it has met all standard of safety as recommended by EASA.
“We have been using this aircraft since December when we have a very large volume of passengers on that route, recording over 450 passengers throughout December, January, February and March but now we are at a low season which is going to end by June, next month and we are going to take delivery of another Boeing B777 from Euro Atlantic and we would use the two of them (Boeing B747 and Boeing B777), depending on the level of passengers, we would now know which aircraft to use,” Animashaun said.
