April 8, (THEWILL) – The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo (SAN), on Monday, said Emirates Airlines will soon resume flight operations to Nigeria, possibly before June 2024.
Keyamo disclosed this when he featured on Arise News on Monday.
According to him, “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.
“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 us 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.”
Recall that Emirates suspended flight operations to Nigeria in 2022 over its inability to repatriate its revenue in US dollars trapped in the country but the Federal Government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), had released the bulk of the trapped funds thereby paving the way for the return of the airline.
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