Emirates Airlines has announced the suspension of flights to Nigeria, citing the inability to repatriate revenue from the country as the reason for the decision.
According to the statement, the measure went into effect on October 29.
In a statement obtained on Thursday, the airline stated that it had no choice but to suspend flights to and from Nigeria in order to avoid further losses.
Recall that the airline’s move came less than three months after the Central Bank of Nigeria failed to intervene to resolve the issue of trapped aviation funds. It had previously suspended flights to the country in August due to an inability to repatriate $85 million in revenue.
The statement read in part, “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.
“Under these extraordinary circumstances, Emirates had no option but to suspend flights to/from Nigeria from October 29 2022 to mitigate against further losses moving forward”.