Ebola: Private jet owners avoid leasing aircraft

                           
Owners of private jets in Nigeria have become cautious about leasing out their aircraft following the outbreak of Ebola.Although, aviation officials had been strictly mandated not to speak on issues concerning the virus, one of our correspondents gathered that most private jet owners had cut down the number of times they leased out their jets.A senior official with one of the key agencies in the sector told our correspondent many countries had systematically stopped their carriers from flying into Nigeria, thereby heightening the panic among private jet owners in the country.

“Many foreign carriers hardly fly into Nigeria and most of them have officially announced the suspension of flights to countries like Liberia and Guinea where the Ebola virus disease is very pronounced. This is causing panic among owners of private jets and some of them are not giving out their jets to friends and even family members,” the official said.

Another senior aviation official at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport also told our correspondent that airlines like Cameroon Air had suspended their flights into Nigeria.

Pleading anonymity, he said, “We have suspended only Gambia Airline. Others that don’t come into Nigeria are the ones who suspended themselves. For instance, Cameroon Air said they were not coming here and they did that on their own.”

Asked if major international carriers, like British Airways, Kenya Airlines and Emirates, had cancelled flights into Nigeria, the official said, “They are still coming. There is no official communication telling us they have suspended their flights. At least, as at yesterday (Thursday) I know they are still flying into Nigeria but I don’t know if it has changed as at today (Friday).

“However, we do know that many countries are taking all the necessary precautions and many airlines, on their own, are suspending operations into Ebola-hit countries, especially nations like Guinea and Liberia.”

Early this month, British Airways announced the suspension of flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone following concerns about the spread of Ebola.

Dubai’s Emirates Airline also stated that it was suspending flights to Guinea. Pan-African airline Aruj and ASKY suspended all flights to and from the capitals of Liberia and Sierra Leone following the death of a Liberian passenger at the end of July in Lagos.

Officials stated that Chad had also suspended all flights from Nigeria, adding that Nigeria had stopped the Gambian national carrier, Gambia Bird Airlines, from flying into the countr