United Arab Emirates’ national carrier, Emirates Airlines, yesterday, announced the suspension of all passenger flight services on Lagos and Abuja routes, effective September 1, 2022, over $90 million unrepatriated funds in Nigeria.
The carrier said the decision was taken to cut losses on the routes.The carrier had in July notified the Aviation Ministry of its plan to slash daily frequencies to Lagos over stuck accumulated funds.
It informed that its 11 weekly flights into Lagos shall be reduced to seven, effective August 15, 2022, should forex liquidity crisis persist.
Yesterday, its head of international affairs, Sheikh Majid AlMualla, said the airline had tried every avenue to address challenges in repatriating funds from Nigeria, and “we have made considerable efforts to initiate dialogue with the relevant authorities for their urgent intervention to help find a viable solution.
“Regrettably there has been no progress. Therefore, Emirates has taken the difficult decision to suspend all flights to and from Nigeria, effective September 1 2022, to limit further losses and impact on our operational costs that continue to accumulate in the market. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to our customers. However, the circumstances are beyond our control at this stage,” the management’s memo stated in part.
Reacting to the news, the Regional Vice President (Africa and Middle East), International Air Transport Association (IATA), Kamil Alawadhi, via the agency’s Twitter handle, said the body is disappointed that the amount blocked from repatriation by the Nigerian government grew to $464 million in July.
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