November 5, 2024

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Emirates suspends all flights to Nigeria over funding dispute

Emirates suspends all flights to Nigeria over funding dispute

Emirates Airlines announced in a statement Thursday that it has suspended flight operations in and out of Nigeria due to its inability to return funds from the West African country.

The airline said it had “made no progress” in reaching out to Nigerian authorities for a solution.

Emirates said: “Emirates has tried every avenue to meet our ongoing challenges in repatriating funds from Nigeria, and has made great efforts to initiate a dialogue with the relevant authorities for their urgent intervention to help find a viable solution. It is unfortunate that no progress has been made.” a statement.

The decision comes after Emirates Airlines announced last month that it was reducing the number of flights to Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, and the company said it did not have access to its $85 million funds withheld in the country. In a letter to Nigerian Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika, the airline said the stalled funds had risen by more than $10 million per month.

Currency in free fall

Serica told CNN that the withheld funds would be released as this was not the first time Nigeria had held huge amounts of revenue belonging to foreign airlines.

“In the past, Nigeria has shown the ability, willingness and fairness to solve this kind of problem. It happened when we took power in 2015: there was a lot of money withheld, about $600 million at the time. It was in that was in,” Serica told CNN on Thursday. “At a time when the country was in a recession and there were dwindling revenue coming into the country, but we made good on our commitment to pay all that withheld money.”

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“Unfortunately, due to many factors and reasons, funds have accumulated in reserve. The government is working hard to ensure that these funds are released, not only for Emirates Airlines but for all affected airlines,” Serica added.

“Mechanisms will be put in place to ensure that this does not happen in the future,” Serica added.

The minister did not explain what the factors are, although Nigeria is grappling with them shortage of foreign currency That restricted access to foreign exchange for imports.
Earlier in June, the International Air Transport Association said Nigeria was Hold on to 450 million dollars Revenues of foreign transport companies operating in the country.
local currency It was in free fall against the dollar With most of the country’s foreign exchange derived from selling crude oil, which dwindled due to oil theft in the producing communities. The government is also burdened by the high cost of fuel subsidies for domestic consumption.

Nigeria is one of Africa’s largest markets for international airlines.