Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development, says Emirates Airline would shortly announce the exact date of their return to Nigerian flight operations.
The minister announced this on his X page on Sunday.
On the margins of the Dubai Airshow last week, Keyamo said he chatted with executives of Emirates Airline about its Dubai-Nigeria flights.
He stated that the federal government is working on various details about the restart.
“On the sidelines of the Dubai Airshow in Dubai last week, I met with the top echelon of Emirates Airlines and we continued very warm and fruitful discussions towards the resumption of flights from Dubai to Nigeria, an effort which was championed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he said.
“We are presently working on the small details and the airline will soon announce the exact date of their resumption of the flights.”
At the biennial airshow event, Keyamo said he also visited pavilions of leading aviation and aerospace industries around the world.
Keyamo added that he took a valuable cue from the event towards ongoing efforts at “organising Nigeria’s own version of the Airshow in 2024 in Lagos, Nigeria in collaboration with the private sector”.
In October 2022, Emirates Airline suspended flight operations to Nigeria over its inability to repatriate funds trapped in the country.
The airline suspended operations twice last year, with the first in August 2022.
Emirates Airline said the suspension in October was due to its $85 million revenue trapped in Nigeria.
