Emirates Airlines suspends flights to Nigeria over trapped funds

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Emirates Airlines has suspended flight operations to Nigeria over its inability to repatriate blocked funds.

The airline in a statement on Thursday said the suspension took effect from October 29, 2022.

The airline said it has communicated its position to the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Emirates had in August suspended flights to Nigeria over its $85 million blocked revenue. In August, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said foreign airlines have not been unable to repatriate $464 million from Nigeria.

CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele subsequently promised to release $265 million to foreign airlines to offset part of the trapped funds.

“However, Emirates has yet to receive an allocation of our blocked funds to be repatriated,” Emirates said.

“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.

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“We have officially communicated our position and attended multiple hearings with the Nigerian government, and we have made our proposed approach clear to alleviate this untenable situation, including a plan for the progressive release of our funds, DailyTimesNGR gathered.

“This included the repatriation and receipt of at least 80% of our remaining blocked funds by the end of October 2022, in addition to providing a guaranteed mechanism to avoid future repatriation accumulation challenges and delays.

“Under these extraordinary circumstances Emirates had no option but to suspend flights to/from Nigeria from 29 October 2022 to mitigate against further losses moving forward,” the airline further explained.