Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, announced that Emirates Airlines plans to restart its flights to Nigeria.
News About Nigeria reports that this decision follows a crucial meeting with Salem Saeed Al-Shamsi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ambassador to Nigeria, held at the UAE Embassy in Abuja.
Keyamo shared the news on his X account on Wednesday, May 15, revealing that Emirates Airlines has set a specific date for its return and will make an official announcement shortly.
He wrote, “Yesterday, I paid a working visit to the Ambassador of the UAE to Nigeria, His Excellency, Salem Saeed Al-Shamsi, at the UAE Embassy in Abuja. He handed me a correspondence from Emirates Airline indicating a definite date of their resumption of flights to Nigeria. That date will be formally announced by Emirates Airlines in a matter of days.”
The resumption of flights follows the resolution of issues related to the repatriation of Emirates’ earnings in US dollars, which had led the airline to suspend operations in Nigeria in October 2022.
Confirming the minister’s announcement, Emirates Airlines stated on its website that it will resume services to Nigeria on October 1, 2024.
The airline will operate a daily service between Lagos and Dubai, providing customers with enhanced choice and connectivity from Nigeria’s largest city to Dubai and beyond.
Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Deputy President and Chief Commercial Officer, expressed enthusiasm about the resumption.
“We are excited to resume our services to Nigeria. The Lagos-Dubai service has traditionally been popular with customers in Nigeria, and we hope to reconnect leisure and business travellers to Dubai and onwards to our network of over 140 destinations. We thank the Nigerian government for their partnership and support in re-establishing this route, and we look forward to welcoming passengers back onboard.”
With the resumption of its operations to Nigeria, Emirates will operate flights to 19 gateways in Africa, with 157 flights per week from Dubai.
