The Federal Government yesterday said it will carry out a test run of the Muritala Muhammed Airport, Lagos and Nnamidi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Saturday.

This is to ascertain the state of the facilities and the readiness of the two airports to begin operations as domestic flights are expected to resume into the two airports by next week.

Captain Musa Nuhu, Director General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA , made this disclosure at the daily briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 pandemic.

He said: “Hopefully sometime next week we will be able to announce a restart date for domestic flights.

“Significant progress has been made regarding readiness to restart domestic aviation industry. A few gaps remaining, which will be closed hopefully in next couple of days? We have to get it right both in technical safety and health safety.”

Recall all the airports in the country have been closed to flight operations, except “essential flights ” since March as a result of the dreaded corona virus pandemic that broke out in the country after the index case brought the virus to the country from Italy.

The international airports have only hosted few evacuation and essential flights since the closure with the permission of the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika.