NIGERIA SECURES RECIPROCAL FLIGHT RIGHTS FOR LOCAL AIRLINES TO UAE
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Nigeria’s indigenous airlines can now operate to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) thanks to reciprocal flight rights that have been obtained.
Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, revealed the information on Friday on his official X (formerly Twitter) account.
This resolution came about as a result of a meeting between the Minister, his technical team, and UAE authorities in the UAE. During that meeting, both delegations worked to establish a new Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) that would govern their countries’ aviation relations.
“Ahead of the resumption of Emirates flights to Nigeria next week Tuesday, I was in the UAE earlier today, together with my technical team, for the negotiation of a new Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) between both countries to guide our new relationship henceforth.
“Today, we firmly agreed on the reciprocal rights our local airlines will also have to begin flight operations to the UAE,” Keyamo’s post read.
This new BASA agreement was reached just four days before Emirates Airlines, which had halted operations there in 2022, is scheduled to start flying again to Nigeria on October 1, 2024.
Things to be aware about Due to challenges in reimbursing embezzled monies from Nigeria, Emirates Airlines ceased flying to that country in October of 2022.
The airline claimed at the time that the suspension was the result of the lack of progress despite promises from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to resolve its foreign exchange problems.
During a diplomatic visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) a year later, in October 2023, President Bola Tinubu and the UAE President came to an agreement to lift the visa ban on Nigerians and restart flights between the two nations.
Even though an agreement was reached, Temitope Ajayi, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, made it clear that flights wouldn’t begin right away since authorities from both countries needed to confirm the accord’s contents.
Deputy President and Chief Commercial Officer of Emirates Airlines, Adnan Kazim, stated in May 2024 that the carrier would resume flights to Nigeria on October 1, 2024.
A Boeing 777-300ER will be used for the flights; Flight EK783 is scheduled to depart Dubai at 09:45 and arrive in Lagos at 15:20. The return flight, EK784, is scheduled to leave Lagos at 1730 and arrive in Dubai at 0510 the next day.
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