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Emirates to reduce number of flights to Nigeria due to worsening foreign exchange crisis

Emirates has hinted it would have to reduce the number of its flights to Nigeria because of the inability of the Airline to repatriate their earnings due to a shortage of dollar crisis in the West African country.

Amid Nigeria's foreign exchange crisis, Emirates announces plan to  reduce flights to the West African country

A letter from Emirates addressed to Nigeria’s Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika, opined that it would reduce the number of flights from 11 to 7 starting from mid-August 2022.

We have no choice but to take this action, to mitigate the continued losses Emirates is experiencing as a result of funds being blocked in Nigeria,” the letter said in parts according to Reuters.

Emirates has had cause to complain about the difficulties it’s been facing trying to repatriate its earnings from Nigeria back to Dubai.

As of last month, the company said it had about $85 million stuck in the Nigerian economy.

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Emirates further noted that efforts to resolve the problem have yielded little or no result.

Meanwhile, the challenge has continued to impact Emirates’ commercial viability in Africa’s most populous country.

Many other foreign airlines operating in Nigeria have also had extreme challenges repatriating their earnings due to the country’s worsening foreign exchange crisis.

Business Insider Africa earlier reported that as much as $450 million worth of the foreign airlines’ earnings were withheld by the Nigerian Government as of May 2022.

Meanwhile, fears are that other foreign airlines will soon follow in the footsteps of Emirates by reducing flights to Nigeria.

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1Nigeria’s forex crisis has continued to deteriorate. The currency traded at N695 to a dollar on the black market as of August 1st, 2022.

There are now concerns that the naira could hit N1000 to the dollar before year-end, given the current rate of depreciation.

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