Again, Emirates Suspends Operations Into Nigeria Due To Trapped Funds

Dubai-based airline, Emirates suspends operations into Nigeria after failing to repatriate its ticket revenues.

Emirates said the measure, which came into effect on October, 29 2022, was to mitigate further losses.

Comes less 3 months after suspending its flights to Nigeria over the inability to repatriate $85m in ticket sales.

Emirate later reinstated flight in September after CBN released $265m out of foreign airlines’ blocked funds.

The Dubai-based airline, Emirates, has again suspended its flights operations in and out of Nigeria after failing to repatriate its ticket revenues from the country.

Emirates, one of two flag carriers of United Arab Emirates (UAE), said the measure, which came into effect on October, 29 2022, was to mitigate further losses.

The airline said the move follows the government’s inability to repatriate at least 80 per cent of its remaining blocked funds by the end of October.

A statement released by the airline reads :

“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 in reviewing our request, and considered that this critical issue would be swiftly resolved with the subsequent clearance of our remaining funds.

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“However, Emirates has yet to receive an allocation of our blocked funds to be repatriated. Without the timely repatriation of the funds and a mechanism in place to ensure that future repatriation of Emirates’ funds does not accumulate in any way, the backlog will continue to grow, and we simply cannot meet our operational costs nor maintain the commercial viability of our operations in Nigeria.”

“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”.

The move by Emirates came less than three months after suspending its flights to Nigeria over the inability to repatriate $85 million ticket sales proceeds from the country.

Emirate later reinstated its flight in September after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released $265 million out of foreign airlines’ blocked funds accumulated for the sale of flight tickets,

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