Sen. Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Aviation, disclosed this on Sunday via his verified Twitter page.
The airline was charged after being found guilty of violating civil aviation regulations IS 1.3.3(a) Table 2(IV) 7(a) and IS 1.3.3 (a) Table 2 (VIII) (4), the minister said.
“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, crew being interrogated. There shall be maximum penalty. Wrong time to try our resolve.
“Flairjet were found to violate our civil aviation regulations IS 1.3.3(a) Table 2(IV) 7(a) and IS 1.3.3 (a) Table 2 (VIII) (4).
“The maximum penalty for each is N500, 000,” he stated.
He added that the airline had been reported to UK CAA, MFA and the UK High Commission, respectively, for their actions as the crew members undergo interrogation.
“We caused them to pay and reported their callous misdemeanour to UK CAA, MFA and the UK High Commission,” his tweet added.
The company was recently caught operating commercial flights despite authorisation for just humanitarian flights.
The Nigerian government has extended the ban on commercial flights from operating into Nigeria till June 4 as part of measures to curb spread of coronavirus.
Only passenger flights evacuating people and those for essential services are currently allowed to operate, as all airports in Nigeria are closed to international commercial flights.
