Adnan Kazim, Deputy President and Chief Commercial Officer of Emirates Airline, has confirmed that the airline will resume operations in Nigeria on 1 October 2024 after two years of suspending its services in the West African country.
Kazim said on Wednesday that Emirates will operate a daily service between Lagos and Dubai, providing passengers from Nigeria’s largest city with enhanced options and connectivity through Dubai.
The flights will be conducted using a Boeing 777-300ER. Flight EK783 will depart from Dubai at 0945hrs, arriving in Lagos at 1520hrs.
The return flight, EK784, will depart Lagos at 1730hrs and arrive in Dubai at 0510hrs the following day.
He noted that tickets are currently available for booking on emirates.com or through travel agents.
Emirates Airline halted its flight operations to Nigeria in October 2022 because it couldn’t repatriate funds held in the country.
The airline attributed the suspension to the $85 million revenue trapped in Nigeria.
What Emirates is Saying
According to Kazim, Emirates is resuming operations in Nigeria, marking a significant expansion of its network. He said the airline now operates to 19 destinations across Africa, providing a total of 157 weekly flights departing from Dubai.
He highlighted that Emirates’ network extends even further, reaching an additional 130 regional locations across Africa.
This expansion is facilitated through codeshare and interline partnerships with several airlines, including South African Airways, Airlink, Royal Air Maroc, and Tunis Air.
Kazim said the strategic importance of these partnerships enhances connectivity and offers more travel options to Emirates’ customers throughout the continent.
“We are excited to resume our services to Nigeria. The Lagos-Dubai service has traditionally been popular with customers in Nigeria and we hope to reconnect leisure and business travellers to Dubai and onwards to our network of over 140 destinations.
“We thank the Nigerian government for their partnership and support in re-establishing this route and we look forward to welcoming passengers back onboard,” he said.
Backstory
In an earlier interview with Arise TV and reported by Nairametrics in April, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, had said the Federal Government is working with the authorities of Emirates Airline for the resumption of the airline service in the country.
According to Keyamo, there is a high likelihood that the airline might resume operations in June 2024 after two years of suspending its services to Nigeria.
- The minister noted that President Bola Tinubu played a significant role in resolving the frosty relations between the two countries.
- According to the minister, the Nigerian government and the United Arab Emirates have resolved issues, and the airline is set to announce the date for its first flight.
- “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.
- In October 2022, Emirates suspended its flight operations to Nigeria due to an inability to repatriate funds held within the country.
- The airline cited the suspension in October as a result of approximately $85 million in revenue being trapped in Nigeria.
