Forex Crisis: Emirates Airline Set To Suspend Flight Operations To Abuja, Ready To Leave Nigeria Entirely

Emirates Airline has said it is cutting flight operations to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja effective October 22nd as part of its restructuring and loss saving effort.

Emirates has formally written the Minister of State, Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika over its intention to stop flight operations into Abuja following the airline’s inability to buy forex and remit its sales..

The airline said it will also suspend Lagos operations indefinitely if things don’t change.

Confirming the report, Premium Times said that the President of the airline Tim Clark announced that it could reduce the frequency of its flights to African cities or cut routes completely if current economic and financial challenges continued.

“In certain African countries, the currencies have really gone down, so we ‘re reflecting on a matter of these to look at where it’s just not worth us to travel,” Clark said at an International Transport Association event held in Dubai on Tuesday.

“Emirates has huge money in naira at the banks. It cannot repatriate its sales because it cannot buy dollars. This is having negative effect on their operations,” the source said.