Emirates Airlines resumes flights to Nigeria with Abuja landing after being absent for over a year

EMIRATES Airlines has resumed flights to the Nigerian capital Abuja after over a year of absence when a Boeing 777-300 landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport this afternoon.

Over the last two years, the Nigerian aviation industry has had it really rough as a foreign exchange crunch made it hard for airlines to meet their obligations, most of which were paid in hard currency. This led several airlines to either stop flying to Nigeria or to severely reduce their operations.

Badly affected by its inability to convert its earnings into dollars and repatriate them from the country, Emirates decided to stop it daily flights to Abuja. In response, the government has introduced several sweeteners to woo the airlines and Emirates returned to the market today when its plane arrived from Dubai with the usual accompanying flight showers to celebrate its return.

On November 3, Emirates announced a decision to reinstate its second daily service to Lagos and resume operations to Abuja with four weekly flights from December 15. According to the airline, the reinstated service to Abuja would be served by a 360-seat B777-300 aircraft in a three-class configuration.

Mahmud Sani, the Abuja airport manager said the reinstated services would further boost activities in the airport as well as generate more revenue for the government.  He expressed happiness that the federal government was able to encourage the airline to return to the route after it stopped operating for over a year.

Mr Sani added: “Emirates has returned with four times frequency in a week and we are happy that the three times that Medview will operate will cover the days that Emirates will not operate. With this development, our Dubai bound passengers should be sure of direct flight to and fro and this means more opportunities for passengers and more activities for the airport."