Emirates has announced the return of its flights to Nigeria in October 2024, two years after the airline suspended its operations in the country.
Emirates suspended its flights to Nigeria in August 2022 when the airline claimed it could not repatriate its US$85 million (R1,44 billion) in earnings from Nigeria to the UAE. Flights between the two countries resumed briefly in September 2022 after the Central Bank of Nigeria released $256 million (R4,4 billion) of Emirates’ earnings.
Flights were again suspended in November 2022 after the remainder of the funds were not repatriated, and the airline said it would not be able to meet its operational costs or maintain the commercial viability of operations in Nigeria.
Emirates has now announced a resumption of the service, with daily flights between Lagos and Dubai. This follows the announcement from Nigeria’s Federal Government that the trapped funds have been released from the Central Banks of Nigeria, according to Nigerian local publication This Day.
Using a Boeing 777-300ER, flight EK783 will depart Dubai at 09h45 and arrive in Lagos at 15h20. Return flight EK784 will depart Lagos at 17h30 and arrive in Dubai at 05h10. Tickets are now available for booking, with the first flight on October 1.
“We are excited to resume our services to Nigeria. The Lagos-Dubai service has traditionally been popular with customers in Nigeria and we hope to reconnect leisure and business travellers to Dubai and onwards to our network of over 140 destinations. We thank the Nigerian government for their partnership and support in re-establishing this route and we look forward to welcoming passengers back on bboard,” said Adnan Kazim, Emirates Deputy President and Chief Commercial Officer.
