Esther Odediran
International passenger traffic drops by 20% after Emirates and Etihad airline withdraw. This decline is a major setback for air travel after COVID-19 outbreak. However, foreign airlines have rallied behind the controversial rapid antigen tests as a better alternative to the popular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test standard for COVID-19.
To that effect, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged governments to accept best-in-class rapid antigen tests following the publication of new research findings.
The Federal Government lately suspended the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) national carrier, Emirates over imposing the rapid antigen testing on Nigerian travelers going to UAE and refusal to reverse the order.
Most countries are taking extra safety measures to protect her citizens from Covid-19 and that is why Coronavirus PCR test result is required before allowing immigrants. However, a lot of Covid19 PCR test results in Nigeria are fake. This is the cause of the withdrawal of Etihad and Emirates. Similarly, Etihad voluntarily withdrew services from Nigeria though quietly.
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Chairman of the Airline Passenger Joint Committee (APJC), Bankole Bernard spoke about traffic reduction after Emirates and Etihad Withdraw said the withdrawal of these airlines was unfortunate, having a significant impact on passenger traffic. Bernhard, also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Finglow Travels also said the 45% increase in the last two weeks slumped to 15% following the withdrawal of Emirates and Etihad.
That is so because Nigerians are not allowed into the UAE. Besides frequencies to Dubai, Nigerians had often connected other parts of the world through Dubai given their effective connectivity, which other destinations and airlines don’t have. So, the withdrawal of Emirates and Etihad is a big loss for all.
Foreign airlines rally behind controversial rapid antigen test The suspension of Emirates Airlines and Etihad’s withdrawal from Nigerian airspace has cost the country, at least, a 20 per cent decline in international passenger traffic.
DaViral News learned that the decline was a major setback for air travel’s gradual recovery that earlier climbed to 45 per cent of pre-COVID-19 traffic.
Meanwhile, foreign airlines have rallied behind the controversial rapid antigen tests as a better alternative to the popular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test standard for COVID-19. To that effect, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged governments to accept best-in-class rapid antigen tests following the publication of new research findings.
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Bernard added that the UAE authorities were not to blame for the additional rapid antigen test controversy.
They (UAE) value lives ahead of money. They value every life in their country, unlike us here. They found the impact of fake COVID-19 test results too huge to handle and found themselves caught in-between.
Bernard added:
Unfortunately, we (Nigeria) didn’t even see the fake results as a big deal, to warrant investigation and prosecution. Etihad withdrew, we didn’t even see the need to find out why and see how to work together to resolve the problem. It is a shame
The BinaxNOW antigen test, for example, misses just one positive case in 1000 travelers (based on an infection rate of one per cent among travelers). It has similarly comparable performance to PCR tests in levels of false negatives and In terms of convenience, processing times for antigen tests are 100 times faster than for PCR testing.
