ABUJA, May 16 (Reuters) – Dubai’s Emirates airline will resume flight schedules to Nigeria from Oct. 1, it said on Thursday, ending a close to two-year halt to flights.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) stopped issuing visas to Nigerians in 2022 after Emirates suspended flights between the nations because of an inability to repatriate funds from Nigeria.
“We are excited to resume our services to Nigeria. We thank the Nigerian government for their partnership and support in re-establishing this route and we look forward to welcoming passengers back on board,” Adnan Kazim, the airline’s deputy president and chief commercial officer, said in a statement.
The Lagos-Dubai service has been popular with Nigerian customers in the past and Emirates said it hopes to reconnect travellers to Dubai and onwards to more than 140 destination with its resumption of services.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met last September in Abu Dhabi and discussed the lifting of the visa ban and new investments into Africa’s most populous country.
The resumption of schedules also includes cargo flights, the statement said.
“As negotiated between the two Heads of State, this immediate restoration of flight activity, through these two airlines and between the two countries, does not involve any immediate payment by the Nigerian government,” the president’s spokesperson Ajuri Ngelale said in a statement.
Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, faces dollar shortages which has made it difficult for some foreign airlines that sold tickets in the Nigerian naira currency to get money out of the country.
Tinubu has embarked on the country’s boldest reforms in decades, which investors have welcomed. The Nigerian leader has scrapped a popular but costly petrol subsidy and also lifted currency restrictions to devalue the naira.
But liquidity has yet to return on the official market with the naira quoted at a premum on the black market.
Ngelale said Tinubu negotiated a new foreign exchange liquidity program between the two governments and that details will be announced in the coming weeks.
He said both leaders have established a framework for new investments involving several billions of dollars into the Nigerian economy across multiple sectors, including defense, agriculture and others, by UAE’s investment arms, Ngelale said.
Boutique Travel VC raises investment cap from $1.5M to $10M to lead rounds and support portfolio companies through growth Travel...
Read moreDetails
