Emirates Airline has announced the suspension of operations between Nigeria and Dubai, less than a week after resuming flights.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) flag carrier announced the ban on its website on Friday evening, saying it will begin on Monday until Nigeria and the Arab nation “resolve the continuing situation.”
Emirates’ flight operations into Nigeria were limited by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on Thursday.
Despite approving Emirates airline a winter flight schedule to operate 21 weekly passenger flights to Nigeria, the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) refused Air Peace equal access to the UAE’s Sharjah international airport, according to the aviation authority.
After nearly 10 months of diplomatic deliberations about COVID-19 travel restrictions for Nigerian passengers, Emirates resumed airline operations to Nigeria on Sunday.
With a fresh issue involving the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA), Nigerian and UAE officials have rekindled a diplomatic spat that would cost Emirates and Air Peace millions of dollars.
In a statement, Emirates Airline said it is committed to its operations in Nigeria and will be ready to reinstate services once UAE and Nigerian authorities work on a solution to the ongoing issue.
“With the recently imposed directive limiting Emirates to operate one flight per week to Nigeria via Abuja, Emirates will be suspending its flights between Nigeria and Dubai from 13 December 2021, until the UAE and Nigerian authorities work on a solution to the ongoing issue,” the notice reads.
“The last flights to operate on 12 December 2021are EK 783/784 to/from Lagos and EK 785/786 to/from Abuja.
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