After about 10 months of diplomatic row, the highly lucrative Nigeria-Dubai air route has been restored, paving the way for the resumption of direct flights between the two countries.
Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is a top holiday destination in the world. Little wonder that the passenger traffic on Lagos-Dubai-Lagos and Abuja-Dubai-Abuja is huge and highly profitable for airlines and Travel Management Companies (TMCs).
Hence the suspension of flights between the two countries came with huge losses for not only airlines, but the TMCs which make a huge profits from ticket sales on the route.
Daily Trust on Sunday reports that the crux of the matter was the COVID-19 pandemic which outbreak in 2020 changed the entire aviation landscape.
After months of lockdown and the grounding of aircraft globally as countries battled to contain the spread of the virus, many nations reopened with different protocols for inbound and outbound passengers.
The basic protocols adopted by most countries is the COVID-19 negative PCR test for travellers which was what the Nigerian government through the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 chaired by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, also adopted.
But trouble started in February when the federal government announced the suspension of Emirates Airline for introducing Rapid Antigen Test (RDT) in addition to the negative PCR test stipulated by the PTF.
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), therefore, announced the ban on Emirates’ operations for violating COVID-19 protocols.
The Director General of NCAA, Capt Musa Nuhu, announced the ban in a letter to the airline dated February 4, 2021 and copied to the Chairman of the PTF, Ministers of Aviation and Health; National Coordinator of PTF, Director General of UAE, General Civil Aviation Authority, MD NAMA and MD FAAN.
NCAA said the ban was necessitated by the continued airlift of passengers from Nigeria using the RDT…