Emirates Suspends Flights To Nigeria As Crisis Mounts In Africa's Biggest Economy

Emirates, one of two flag carriers of the United Arab Emirates, has indefinitely suspended its flight operations to Nigeria, just seven weeks after it restarted operations in the country.

According to a Reuters report, Emirates took this decision citing an inability to repatriate funds from Africa's biggest economy.

The report noted that flights, both inbound and outbound, were suspended with effect from Oct. 29, but official confirmation from the airline was made only on Nov. 3.

Citing an Emirates spokesperson, Reuters reported that the airline has been involved in several negotiations with Nigerian government officials, and has even proposed a way to clear a backlog of blocked funds.

In September, the Nigerian government paid at least $265 million to Emirates to settle outstanding ticket sales, and it was then the airline decided to resume operations in the African nation.

Despite being an oil-producing nation, Nigeria has been facing an unprecedented financial crisis over the past several years due to theft and underinvestment in the energy sector.

Meanwhile, Vanguard Aviation World reported that despite the intervention by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the volume of trapped funds has hit $700 million now, up about 51 percent from the $346 million in September 2022.

"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," said Emirates in a statement, as reported by Vanguard Aviation World.

The statement added: "We have officially communicated our position and attended multiple hearings with the Nigerian government, and we have made our proposed approach clear to alleviate this untenable situation, including a plan for the progressive release of our funds."