Queen Nwabueze
Barely two weeks after threatening to reduce its flights to Nigeria by half, Emirates has announced that it will suspend all flights to the country from September 1.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe airline described the decision as a difficult one but insisted it was necessary to limit the losses it had incurred due to its inability to Nigeria’s dollar shortage crisis.
“Therefore, Emirates has taken the difficult decision to suspend all flights to and from Nigeria, effective 1 September 2022, to limit further losses and impact on our operational costs that continue to accumulate in the market,” said a statement.
Recall that the media had earlier reported that Emirates was having challenges repatriating its earnings from Nigeria back to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
As of July, the company said it had about $85 million stuck in the Nigerian economy. All efforts to resolve the problem have yielded little or no result. And this has inevitably impacted Emirates’ commercial viability in Africa’s most populous country.
In light of the decision, Emirates said it would assist affected customers to arrange alternative travel arrangements. The company also stated that it would evaluate the decision in the coming days, depending on the government’s decision on the trapped funds.
Note that Emirates is not the only foreign airline facing this challenge. Many foreign airlines operating in Nigeria are equally having extreme difficulties repatriating their earnings due to the country’s worsening foreign exchange crisis.
Reportedly, as much as $450 million worth of the foreign airlines’ earnings were withheld by the Nigerian government as of May 2022.
There is a strong possibility that other foreign airlines will soon follow in the footsteps of Emirates by either reducing their flights to the country or suspending them altogether. And this wouldn’t be the first time this would happen. In 2016, some foreign airlines were forced to reduce flights to the country or close shop altogether due to a similar forex crisis.
In the meantime, Nigeria’s forex crisis has continued to deteriorate. The naira was trading at N710 to a dollar on the black market, at the time of filing this report.
