Emirates Airlines to resume Dubai-Nigeria flights in June – Report | Dubai-based Emirates Airlines is to resume direct flights to Nigeria by June 2024, after a one-and-half-year hiatus
Emirates suspended its flight operations to and from Nigeria in October 2022 over the inability to repatriate millions of dollars of the airline’s funds from the
populous West African country.
Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu, according to various reports, personally held fruitful discussions with his UAE counterpart and the Emirates management leading to the resolution
of the major key issues that forced the airlines to pull out of the Nigerian market.
Confirming the decision of Emirates to resume service to Nigeria during an interview on Arise Television, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development of Nigeria,
Festus Keyamo, said: “Emirates flight resumption is almost happening. I just received a letter from Emirates. The letter is on my phone now. They have
gone through all the gamut, and they are ready to come back. They will announce the date because to restart a route, they have to get an aircraft for that
route,” he said.
“I am announcing to Nigerians for the first time; that I just received a letter from Emirates now. The letter is with me. I have a hard copy thanking you for
all the efforts we made. Mr. President was the showman here. He was the one who pushed for it. He made my job easy because he went there, and had a diplomatic
shuttle to resolve all the issues. They [Emirates] will announce the date for their next flight. We have received a letter confirming that all the issues
have been resolved and that we are prepared to start coming back. It may be before June,” Mr. Keyamo said. Emirates Airlines to resume Dubai-Nigeria flights in June – Report
By Dominick Andoh & Joojo Maapa | Aviationghana
