Coronavirus: Turkish Airlines Suspends Flights to Nigeria

Turkish Airlines has suspended flights to Nigeria to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The airline operates flights to three destinations in Nigeria.

Wole Shadare reports that flights scheduled to arrive Lagos on March 17, 23 and 29 are affected as well as flights for Abuja scheduled for March 13, 16, 20, 25, 27 and April 1, 2020.

Also, flights scheduled for Port-Harcourt on March 11, 13, 18 and 25 will not operate.

The airline did not state when normal flight operations to the country would resume.

Nigeria is not the only country where the airline suspended flights operations. Others include China, Iran, Iraq, Italy and South Korea.

At present, there are two confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country.

Akin Abayomi, the Lagos state commissioner for health, had said an Italian man who is the index coronavirus patient in the country arrived via Turkish Airlines.

He came into the country to work on a project.

The second confirmed case is a person who had direct contact with him in the line of work.

Health authorities, on Monday, revealed the identity of two passengers who were aboard the flight.The two passengers were declared wanted for tests with health authorities saying the contact details they provided to the airline were fake and they couldn’t be traced.