Emirates Airlines to resume operations in Nigeria Oct 1

Emirates Airlines has disclosed plans to resume operations in Nigeria on October 1, 2024, two years after the airline suspended operation into the country due to inability to repatriate $85million revenue trapped in the country.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development Festus Keyamo had on Wednesday paid a working visit to the United Arab Emirates Ambassador to Nigeria Salem Saeed Al-Shamsii where he was given a definite date for the commencement of flight operations by the Emirates Airlines

Keyamo on his official X handle said “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 the 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”

Not too long after the airline on the Official X handle wrote: “We’re back, Nigeria! We will be resuming services to Lagos from October 1, 2024, and we can’t wait to offer unrivaled connectivity to Dubai and beyond to over 140 cities.”

Emirates’ Deputy President and Chief Commercial Officer Adnan Kazim in a press statement said “The service will be operated using a Boeing 777-300ER. EK783 departed Dubai at 0945hrs, arriving in Lagos at 1520hrs; the return flight EK784 left Lagos at 1730hrs and arrived in Dubai at 0510hrs the next day.

“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 travelers 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 operations to Nigeria, Emirates operates to 19 gateways in Africa with 157 flights per week from Dubai, with further reach to an additional 130 regional points in Africa through its codeshare and interline partnerships with South African Airways, Airlink, Royal Air Maroc, Tunis Air, among others.As a major economic hub in Africa,.

“Nigeria and the UAE have built strong bilateral trade relations over the years, headlined by Lagos as the nation’s commercial centre. With the resumption of daily passenger flights, the airline’s cargo arm, Emirates SkyCargo, will further bolster the trade relationship by offering more than 300 tonnes of bellyhold cargo capacity, in and out of Lagos every week.”

“Emirates SkyCargo will support Nigerian businesses by exporting their goods via its state-of-the-art hub in Dubai, into key markets such as the UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Bahrain, among others with key anticipated commodities such as Kola Nuts, food and beverages, and urgent courier material.

“SkyCargo will also import vital goods such as pharmaceuticals and electronics as well as general cargo from key markets such as the UAE, India and Hong Kong. Keeping trade flowing seamlessly, these goods will be transported quickly, efficiently, and reliably via the airline’s multi-vertical specialized product portfolio.”

“The Emirates Boeing 777-300ER serving Lagos will operate with 8 First Class suites, 42 Business Class seats, and 304 seats in Economy Class.

He stated that Emirates stopped its operations to Nigeria indefinitely on October 29, 2022 because of its trapped funds and over the failure of the government to make dollars available to the foreign carriers to repatriate their revenues.”

With the resumption of Emirates flights to Nigeria, the UAE and Nigeria would resume their diplomatic relations and Nigerians can now obtain visas to travel to the Middle East country.