Air passengers groan as portal slows COVID-19 test payment

International passengers are frustrated over the slow portal process for paying to get tested for COVID-19, making them spend longer hours, with some missing their flights.

Part of the international flight protocol since Saturday according to the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, is that passengers must pay N42,500 online for the test and airlines must present the evidence.

The maiden Ethiopian Airline flight after about five months of suspension of international flight arrived in Abuja with 120 passengers and 13 crew members on Monday at 1:34pm and was treated to a ceremonial water-cannon by FAAN Fire Service department.

But lamenting, Mr. Richard Matela, a passenger from Kinshasa, Congo said: "The paper and administrative works are hectic. I spent six hours at the airport just struggling to fill the forms online. I completed the form but the system isn’t working properly. I had to call my people here in Nigeria to do whatever they could do to help me fill the online forms and get the proof of payment."

He suggested that passengers should pay on arrival rather than pay at the point of departure; but he commended FAAN over the COVID-19 protocols at the airport.

"The COVID-19 protocols at the airport are good. The officials are strict. I have passed through Ghana and

Ethiopian but what I saw in Abuja was the best.”

Another passenger, Joe Ogwu who came in from London, said: "It's a horrible experience with the portal. It took several hours before they could let us go. We paid N42,500 for the COVID-19 test. In the UK it was a free test," he said.

The MD of the Federal Airports Authority (FAAN), Capt. Rabiu Yadudu who was at the airport to monitor the flight arrival said: "The resumption of international flight is a life saver for the Aviation industry."

Yadudu however said so far there were no challenges with the protocols, and that passengers have been working with the protocols. He was also happy with the cooperation.