Emirates to resume Abuja flights — one year after suspending operations

Hadi Sirika, minister of state for aviation, says Emirates Airline will resume its flight operations to Abuja on December 15.

The minister made this known via his Twitter account.

“Glad to inform that Emirates will recommence Abuja flight on the 15th of December, 2017. Thanks for bearing with us,” he wrote.

Glad to inform that Emirates will recommence Abuja flight on the 15th of December, 2017. Thanks for bearing with us.🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬

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— Hadi Abubakar Sirika (@hadisirika) November 1, 2017

The airline, alongside some other foreign airlines, had suspended flight operations in 2016 during a period of forex scarcity.

The company had complained about the difficulty in recovering its tickets in dollars and how it would affect its financial statements.

“In certain African countries, the currencies have really gone down, so we’re reflecting on a number of these to look at where it’s just not worth us travelling,” Tim Clark, Emirates president had said in 2016.

“We have major differences, being dollar-denominated, in what we collect and what we represent in our financial statements.”

During the same period, airlines had also complained about the scarcity of aviation fuel, which led to delays and cancellation of some flights, and the bad runway at the Abuja airport.

The federal government had since repaired the runway at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport.