EMIRATES SUSPENDS FLIGHTS TO NIGERIA DUE TO FOREX CRISIS AND A DIPLOMATIC INCIDENT.

Emirates, a United Arab Emirates-based airline, ceased flights to Nigeria in October due to a lack of access to foreign currency.

All other foreign airlines still operating in Nigeria is the same.

The inability to access and repatriate its $85 million from Nigeria had a negative impact on its operations.

Beginning in 2021, this was caused by the UAE mega carrier's brazen contempt for a bilateral aviation safety agreement with Nigerian airline Air Peace as it sought to monopolize the Nigeria-UAE route.

Emirates recorded 21 weekly frequencies while operating twice daily to Lagos and once daily to Abuja, while UAE limited Nigeria's Air Peace to just one flight per week to Abu Dhabi rather than Dubai.

POLITICAL CRISIS

Nigeria's federal government lowered Emirates' weekly frequencies from 20 to just one flight to Abuja in December.

When the diplomatic crisis was amicably resolved and Dubai Civil Aviation Authorities Airport permitted Air Peace to operate seven weekly flights to Dubai, Emirates resume its operations to Nigeria.

In a letter dated December 13, 2021 to Air Peace, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority stated that in order to maintain good ties between the two countries, it had offered to block some slots for Air Peace.

In addition to the crisis with aircraft slots, UAE recently prohibited granting visas to younger Nigerians except for those going on family visas, which had an impact on the operations of airlines that operate the Nigeria-UAE route.

Air Peace declared in a statement that it would stop flying to Dubai starting on November 22, 2022 due to the non-issuance of visas to Nigerians.

NO CHOICE

Emirates said in a statement that, in order to protect against additional losses and retrieve its $85 million trapped fund, it has no choice but to stop operating flights to and from Nigeria beginning on October 29, 2022.

“The backlog will continue to grow and it will be hard to meet our operational costs nor maintain the commercial viability of our operations in Nigeria,” says the company. “Without the timely repatriation of the funds and a mechanism in place to ensure that future repatriation of Emirates' funds do not accumulate.”

To minimize future repatriation accumulation problems and delays, according to Emirates, is what Nigeria is need to deliver.

After the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released $265 million of the $700 million owed to international airlines to clear outstanding detained funds from ticket sales, the UAE carrier had previously resumed operations on September 11, 2022.

Emirates' public relations manager, Rula Tadros, issued a statement in which she said, “Emirates welcomes the CBN move to release a portion of our blocked cash.”

RESUMING SUSPENDED FLIGHTS

To get the CBN to hand over the final payment to international airlines, the airline restarted the suspension of flights in October.

The ban has a negative effect on the thousands of Emirates travelers.

Emirates transports 15,120 people from and into Lagos and Abuja each week, carrying 350 passengers on average per trip.

However, these travelers have other options.

Mr. Adams Abdullahi, a travel agent who is dissatisfied with the move by Emirates, questioned “Why should the airline shut down its services while others from the same region are running.”

FOREIGN EXCHANGE CRISIS

Over the past few months, the persistent FX crisis has had a severe effect on both domestic and foreign airlines.

International airlines have reportedly been unable to repatriate money since July 2022, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Stakeholders urge the Nigerian central bank to permit international airlines access to their funds because they are unhappy with how the aviation sector is.

The CBN is not doing the airlines any favors, according to Mr. Olumide Ohunayo, head of research and corporate travel at Zenith Travels and Tours, by releasing the foreign currency to them. CBN must pay the airlines the amount due in dollars.

NOT A DOLLAR LEGISLATION

However, the CBN has clarified that it is not required by law to give dollars to international airlines.

Nigeria is committed to assisting airlines in clearing their backlog of foreign currency, according to CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, but he stressed that the bilateral air services agreement did not require international airlines to bring all of their dollar revenues home.