Private Jets Nigeria has said the association suffered over five billion dollars financial loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chief Operating Officer of the association, Omotade Lepe, disclosed this during the Luxury Reporter Facebook Live Series with the theme, “The Private Jets Sector Post- COVID-19″.

Lepe said this period has been the most challenging for operators as it suffered revenue loss, decline in flight requests, among others while overhead remained fixed.

“COVID-19 has dealt seriously with the aviation sector generally but for the private jet operators, we can say we have lost over five billion dollars while the pandemic ravaged the world,” he said.

The official said that the association had put in place some measures to revamp the business post-COVID-19 in order to recover some lost revenue.

“The private jet business does not ordinarily warrant marketing but in view of the business outlook now, we will be reaching out to improve patronage. We are going to stop our previous attitude of ‘our customers know us’ and take our services to the customers,” he explained.

Lepe further said that in line with the requirements of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, the private jet operators would ensure strict adherence to COVID-19 guidelines, in addition to some other safety rules.

“Private jets give room for automatic social distancing as against commercial flights,” he said, adding that mandatory temperature checks, use of face masks, sanitisers, among other protocols would be enforced when flight operations resume later this month.