Emirates concludes plans to resume flights to Nigeria before June - Minister

The carrier, in a statement, said Emirates will be completely suspending its flights between Nigeria and Dubai until the Civil Aviation Authorities from both countries find a solution to the current ongoing issue.

Festus Keyamo, the minister of aviation and aerospace development has announced that Emirates has concluded plans to resume flight operations to Nigeria before June, 2024.

Keyamo disclosed this on Arise Tv on Monday, stating that he had received a letter from Emirates on the return of the carrier.

He however noted that the first announcement in October last year over the proposed resolution of the face-off between both nations was not fake news but was ‘hasty’.

“Emirates flight resumption is almost happening. I just received a letter from Emirates. The letter is on my phone now. They are ready to come back. They will announce the date because to restart a route, they have to get an aircraft for that route.”

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“I am announcing to Nigerians for the first time; that I just received a letter from Emirates now. The letter is with me. I have a hard copy thanking you for all the efforts we made. Mr. President was the showman here. He was the one who pushed for it. He made my job easy because he went there, and had a diplomatic shuttle to resolve all the issues.

“That was why I said the last announcement was hasty and not fake news. They will announce the date for their next flight. We have received a letter confirming that all the issues have been resolved and prepared to start coming back. It may be before June.”

Emirates in 2022 suspended flight operations to Nigeria — for the second time in the year – over its inability to repatriate its revenue trapped in the country.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.