Trapped funds: Emirates suspends flights into Nigeria indefinitely

Emirates has suspended flights to and from Nigeria indefinitely from 29th October, 2022.

Any attempt to book a flight from Abuja and Lagos on the Emirates portal shows an automatic non-availability message.

In a statement by Emirates on Thursday, the airline said it has no option but to suspend flights to and from Nigeria to mitigate against further losses moving forward.

According to the airline, “Emirates has continued to actively seek a solution for the repatriation of the remainder of its blocked funds in Nigeria. We were encouraged by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s efforts of reviewing our request, and considered that this critical issue would be swiftly resolved with the subsequent clearance of our remaining funds.

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“However, Emirates has yet to receive an allocation of our blocked funds to be repatriated. Without the timely repatriation of the funds and a mechanism in place to ensure that future repatriation of Emirates’ funds do not accumulate in any way, the backlog will continue to grow, and we simply cannot meet our operational costs nor maintain the commercial viability of our operations in Nigeria.”

The airline explained that it has officially communicated its position and attended multiple hearings with the Nigerian government, and have made its proposed approach clear to alleviate this untenable situation, including a plan for the progressive release of our funds.

This included the repatriation and receipt of at least 80 percent of its remaining blocked funds by the end of October 2022, in addition to providing a guaranteed mechanism to avoid future repatriation accumulation challenges and delays, the airline stated

The airline noted that under these extraordinary circumstances it had no option but to suspend flights to/from Nigeria from 29 October 2022 to mitigate against further losses moving forward.

“We hope to reach a mutual resolution with the Nigerian government around the repatriation of blocked funds to enable the resumption of operations and connectivity for travellers and businesses,” the airline said.