As travellers on the Nigeria UAE routes look forward to a relaunch of flights between both countries, a new restriction raises its head as Emirates Airlines has been restricted on the flights it can operate. A letter from the Federal Government states that the airline may only fly once per week, as opposed to its original plan of daily. The move is considered to be a reciprocal action, after Sharjah Airport failed to give Air Peace the slots it required to resume service.
Just a week ago, Emirates was eagerly gearing up to begin flying to Nigeria once again, following a ban that had been in place since March. Now, just days after the resumption had taken place, President Muhammadu Buhari, via the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), has banned the airline again.
But in a letter marked NCAA/DG/AIR/11/16/329 and titled ‘Withdrawal of Ministerial Approval of Emirates Airlines Winter Schedule,’ sent to the airline yesterday. Signed by the Director General of NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, the letter read:
“Please, kindly note, henceforth Emirates Airlines is granted approval to operate only one weekly passenger frequency to Abuja on Thursdays. Please be guided accordingly.”
The resumption of flights to Nigeria only began last Sunday, with Emirates services operating to Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. The plan was for flights to continue daily to both Nigerian cities.
Both flights had received a warm welcome from Nigeria, with water cannon salutes and cake cutting ceremonies at both airports. Paulos Legesse, Emirates’ Country Manager for Nigeria, had celebrated the event, stating,
“We are delighted to resume operations to and from Nigeria and are pleased to see strong interest from our customers, reflected in robust forward bookings from the time of our announcement, as well as today’s full flights from Dubai to Abuja and Lagos.”
Pulling the rug from under the feet of the Dubai airline so quickly is perplexing. However, investigations by local media suggest it was a retaliatory move.
A letter has been received from Sharjah Airport, addressed to Air Peace, and with reference to its application for resumption of regular services for the winter season. The letter stated:
“Kindly note that the proposed timings were coordinated with the various stakeholders at Sharjah Airport, despite the terminal congestion and various challenges that will be faced, and with the best intentions we kept in mind our long business relationship we enjoy with Air Peace.
“As such we are pleased to propose the following timings: Once weekly flight every Thursday (day 4) with arrival time at Sharjah to be STA 01:00 UTC, and departure time from Sharjah will be STD 05:00 UTC.”
Air Peace had hoped to resume flights to the UAE on December 1st, but wanted rather more than one weekly slot allocation. The airline previously flew to Sharjah three times a week, marketing it as a flight to Dubai but with a bus connection for the final leg. It had suspended services due to the pandemic, but restarted in February for a brief while.
Rows over testing requirements saw both Emirates and Air Peace quitting the services in March. However, agreements reached in mid-November signalled a restart of the services from both airlines. The Nigerian ban on Emirates was officially lifted on November 27th.
Now, it seems the tit for tat argument over airport slots has set things back once again. “Government should be applauded for standing its ground before this absolute impunity by the UAE. They refused to give Air Peace slot allocation but Nigeria allows Emirates to operate to Dubai and Lagos daily.”
