As precautionary measure to check the spread of Coronavirus, Turkish Airlines has announced the cancellation of all its flights to its destinations in Nigeria as it also cut back its operations to other international destinations.
The airline, in a statement, said the cancellation of flights to its three destinations in Nigeria was due to the Coronavirus situation all over the world.
The statement said the cancellations would start for flights originally scheduled to arrive Lagos on March 17, 23 and 29th, and flights for Abuja scheduled for March 13, 16th, 20th, 25th, 27th and April 1, 2020.
Flights to Port Harcourt would not operate on March 11th, 13th 18th, 25th and 25th.
The statement however did not say when the airline would resume flights again into the country, although it is projected that virus devastation would begin to diminish by end of April.
With the latest announcement by Turkish Airlines, it is likely that airlines’ losses could mount beyond the International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecast that airlines would make a loss of over $113 billion as a result of the deadly virus.
Many international carriers are also taking drastic measures to limit the spread of the deadly Coronavirus by cancelling flights and modifying their routes.
Some of these airlines include American Airlines, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Delta Airlines, Air Seoul, Oman Air, Air Mauritius, JejuAir Co Ltd, Qatar Airways, RwandAir, Scoot (Singapore Airlines), Saudia (Saudi Arabia’s state airline) and Kenya Airways, amongst others.
Last week, Emirates Airlines had reportedly asked its employees to embark on unpaid leave for up to a month due to the rapidly spreading coronavirus disease.
The airline had also cancelled flights to Iran, Bahrain and to most of China because of the virus, as countries around the world continue to place strict restrictions on the entry of foreigners.
