EXCLUSIVE: Aircraft impounded by FG is FlairJet not Flair Aviation, as company says it is ‘respectfully’ working with Nigerian government

Despite the ban on local and international flights by the Nigerian government to contain the spread of COVID-19, an aviation company with ties to the United Kingdom, ‘Flair Aviation’, at the weekend, violated the ban by operating commercial flights into the country without approval, the Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika has said.

Sirika said the Federal Government has impounded the aircraft while the crew of the flight is also being interrogated to know their level of culpability, threatening that there shall be maximum penalty for the offence.

Aircrafts involved in essential services, used for medical and evacuation purposes, were exempted from the ban on local and international flights, this is why the aviation company was authorised to conduct humanitarian flights but was caught operating commercial flights.

Sirika explained that in addition to the confiscated aircraft, a “maximum penalty” would be imposed on the company for violating the Nigerian government’s ban on commercial flights.

The minister tweeted on Sunday evening: “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, the crew being interrogated. There shall be maximum penalty. Wrong time to try our resolve”.

However, there have been conflicting reports over the location and name of the aviation company, while the Aviation Minister claimed it is Flair Aviation based in the UK, another news media in the country faulted the minister’s claim and said it is a Canadian-based company.

Investigations by Neusroom, however, revealed that Flair Aviation is based in Germany, while Flair Airlines whose logo was widely used by several news media in their reports does not operate international flights, the company said it only operates within Canada. The UK-based aviation company whose aircraft was impounded at the weekend is Flair Jet and not Flair Aviation as widely reported by the media.

A customer care representative of Flair Airlines Canada told Neusroom in a telephone interview on Monday that its airline only operates locally and denied that its aircraft was impounded in Nigeria.

The company also posted a statement on its official Twitter handle to dissociate itself from the aircraft impounded in Nigeria.

“Today, an article was published by PM News Nigeria about Flair Aviation, but was incorrectly associated to Flair Airlines Ltd. by use of an image of our aircraft,” the company tweeted via @flairairlines. “We have asked the publication to correct its story and retract our image.”

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The CEO of Flair Aviation in Germany, Thelka Homburg, also told Neusroom correspondent via telephone that the company did not operate any aircraft lately.

In an email sent to Neusroom, he wrote: “I think it was an aircraft operated by Flair Jet in the UK. Our company did not operate any aircraft lately.

“Flair Aviation does not operate aircraft at all. So I assume you are mixing our company with the Company from the UK using the name Flair Jet.”

In an email sent to Neusroom, a Flairjet representative responded with, “We are continuing to respectfully work with the Nigerian authorities and the British consulate to resolve this situation for this flight. However, because it is an evolving situation we cannot say anything further at this time.”