TheCable

Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development, says Emirates Airline will soon announce the exact date of their resumption of flight operations to Nigeria.

The minister made this known on Sunday in a post on his X page.

Keyamo said he spoke with representatives of Emirates Airline regarding their Dubai to Nigeria flights on the sidelines of the Dubai Airshow in Dubai last week.

He said the federal government is working on some details concerning the resumption.

“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.