Emirates announced Wednesday that it has resumed flights to Lagos, Nigeria.
In a message sent to customers and quoted by TheCable, the airline said flights would resume on Sept. 11, 2022.
This comes almost a week after the Nigerian government issued $265 million to foreign airlines in the country to settle pending ticket sales that prompted the airline to announce the suspension of its flights.
Emirates said, “We are pleased to inform you that effective from 11th September 2022, we will reinstate operations of our flights.”
“Inbound flights from Dubai to Lagos (EK783) and outbound flights from Lagos to Dubai (EK784) will recommence from Sunday 11th September 2022.”
“Lagos flights after 30th September, 2022 will be advised in due course.”
Emirates had earlier announced that it will suspend flights to Nigeria from 1 September this year.
The proposed moratorium on flights to Nigeria is linked to its failure to return air ticket sales funds trapped in the West African country to his home country of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Also in December 2021, Emirates announced that it would suspend flights to Nigeria indefinitely in retaliation for Nigeria cutting flights to the UAE as a result of diplomatic rift between the two count.
At least $600 million from over 20 foreign airlines has been blocked in Nigeria since the beginning of the year.
And just a few weeks ago, Emirates announced it had about $85 million in Nigeria from those funds.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) had described the blockage of $464 million in repatriation money for basically foreign airline companies in July by the Nigerian Government as disappointing.
The group warned that the Nigerian economy would suffer if the funds were not returned to the affected companies.
