Last week, the Director-General of the Sierra Leone Civil Aviation Authority Moses Tiffa Baio  presented a case to the country’s National  COVID-19 Emergency Response Centre (NaCOVERC) calling for the reopening of Sierra Leone’s airspace for commercial flight operations.

While commending the Government of Sierra Leone on its admirable response so far in the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak, he noted that the aviation industry is facing the biggest challenge of its history.

“The SLCAA being a member of the Global Network of the Aviation Industry has held series of consultative engagement meetings on the need to reopen the airport to schedule flights.

Drawing the attention of NaCOVERC to neighbouring countries (Liberia and Guinea) that are on the verge of reopening their airspace to schedule flights, he stated that it would make Sierra Leone’s fight against COVID-19 cumbersome as a result of porous borders and other security concerns.

In response to the Director’s appeal, Interim National Coordinator of NaCOVERC, Brig Rtd Kellie Hassan Conteh said the focus of NaCOVERC was centred on how much they could control the pandemic, stating further that Sierra Leone should be prepared for a possible public health risk should the industry be in haste to reopen the airport.