The United Arab Emirates-owned Airline, Emirates Airs has restored its flight operations to Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos.
The UAE-owned company, Emirates Air announced this in emails sent to its customers, Newsonspot blog gathered.
The email message read, “We are pleased to inform you that effective from 11th September 2022, we will reinstate operations of our flights,” Emirates said on Wednesday.
“Inbound flights from Dubai to Lagos (EK783) and outbound flights from Lagos to Dubai (EK784) will recommence from Sunday, 11th September 2022.
“Lagos flights after 30th September 2022 will be advised in due course.”
Wednesday’s reinstatement came two weeks after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier suspended flight operations, citing its inability to repatriate its earnings in foreign exchange from Nigeria.
“We have had no choice but to take this action, to mitigate the continued losses Emirates is experiencing as a result of funds being blocked in Nigeria,” the airlines said in a letter addressed to the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika.
“As of July 2022, Emirates has US$85 million of funds awaiting repatriation from Nigeria. This figure has been rising by more than $US10 million every month, as the ongoing operational costs of our 11 weekly flights to Lagos and 5 to Abuja continue to accumulate.”
The airline said the decision was due to its inability to repatriate its earnings in foreign exchange from Nigeria.
The International Air Transportation Association (IATA) expressed disappointment over the issue, saying that foreign airlines’ funds trapped in Nigeria had increased from $450 million in May to $464 million in July.
In its defence, the Federal Government had maintained that the country was facing a forex exchange crisis, and could not meet various obligations, including revenue repatriation by foreign airlines and dollar requests by citizens and businesses.
Recall that the Federal government released $265 million to international airways companies following criticism from players in the industry and International Air Transportation Association (IATA).
IATA, while welcoming the move, said it would encourage foreign carriers to continue servicing the country.
