The United Arab Emirates (UAE) flag carrier Emirates, yesterday, resumed flight services to Nigeria after a two-year hiatus occasioned by diplomatic row and the inability of the airline to repatriate its trapped funds. The ‘inaugural’ flight was devoid of the water salute which typically marks the first flight of a new airline or a groundbreaking aircraft model. The airline’s return followed the new Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) signed between the two countries. The agreement is based on reciprocal rights which will allow the Nigerian representative on the Middle East route, Air Peace, to resume operations to the UAE. Following the agreement, the federal government dispatched the minister of aviation and aerospace development, Mr Festus Keyamo to the UAE to escort the airline to Nigeria. Speaking gleefully after Emirates’ flight EK 783 landed at the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, Keyamo said, among other things that the federal government’s interest in the return of the Middle East carrier to Nigeria is to protect the huge investments Nigerians have in the UAE.
Ime Akpan
Governments interest in Emirates
When we came into office, President Bola Tinubu made it clear that he would like to restore relationships with most of the major partners and countries around the world. As a government, we identified the UAE as a major and an important partner and the country that we should restore our relationship with. The relationship went downhill…with visas, suspension of visas, and suspension of their flights.
And for Nigerians, it was especially damaging because we know that Nigerians have a lot of investments in the UAE; they have a lot of interest and investments. So eventually, it was not an adventure in self-glorification, it was actually a fight for the people of Nigeria, especially.
The tempo around is that people are excited, people are happy that we are restoring relationships with the UAE. And that is why I took all the pain to go back there, to sign a new BASA.
I went there; we signed a new bilateral air service agreement, redefining our relationship altogether again, making it more healthy, making it more open, and for the benefit, especially of the Nigerian people, and I decided to accompany them there.
You heard from them (Emirates), from the horse’s mouth. They say they are back to stay, they are not going anywhere again, because I think the suspension hurt both sides. They felt it and we felt it. But now they are back.
Benefits of airline’s return
First of all, you have more options for indigenous carriers which are also flying to destinations in the Middle East and other lands. The first thing we did when we went to negotiate a new bilateral air service agreement was to also secure the route for our local operators.
Our agreement with them is they fly to any destination; we fly to any destination in the UAE. So it’s purely reciprocal in that respect.
First of all, you know that we have a variety of choices now. We have more competition on different international routes now. That’s what it’s all about; it’s to ensure a healthy competition and healthy competition leads to competitive prices for the benefit of the Nigerian people.
I’m sure you know, without mentioning an airline, when this was suspended, I’m sure you know that some other airlines ripped the benefits. Many of them increased their frequencies to Nigeria. Many of them increased their prices because the seats were not available, flights were not available, and all of that.
You also know that why we fought for this is that Dubai, in particular, is a major hub of the world. It links virtually every country of the world. I have not seen any major country, and I use that word advisedly that is not linked from Dubai.
So for Nigerian travellers, it is easy to access any part of the world by simply traveling to Dubai and connecting to that country.
Benefits to Nigerian airlines
For our airlines too, I can tell you that we also secured some kind of code-sharing agreements. We told them that if they want to code-share, our airlines will have the right of first refusal. So that is an expo I’m giving to you.
We said our local airlines will have the right of first refusal because there will be a lot of code-sharing in this respect now. And as I speak, they (Emirates) are speaking with many of our local operators. I went with some of them (to Dubai). Emirates is speaking with a lot of our local operators now and that is also for the benefit of our local aviation industry.
Air Peace flying to Sharjah instead of Dubai
I will put it advisedly that we are also free to fly to any airport in the UAE. They have Sharjah, they have the Etihad Airways, and they also have the Dubai International Airport (IATA: DXB). That’s it, that’s Qatar. So we have, we insisted on that. So we have initiated the agreement and I can bet you this is for the entire good of the Nigerian people, and coupled, of course, with the fact that we have gone around the world trying to restore confidence again in our aviation ecosystem and our leasing industry, the aircraft leasing industry.
Empowering local airlines
I have not spoken too much about it, but very soon I will expand and expatiate more on it. About the confidence we are giving to the leasing world with the practice direction of the Cape Town Convention that we identified early in this administration as core to opening up the aviation industry in Nigeria.
We have seen that our score, our compliance score has gone up tremendously and still rising because in the next few weeks we are also going to roll out the Irrevocable De-registration and Export Request Authorisation (IDERA) also that will substantially increase our scores, our compliance scores. So all of that will combine to then empower our local operators to be able to service this route and also compete favourably with some of these big airlines that we are inviting into Nigeria. And more competition, less prices, and everybody can, any major businessman can come together and float an airline. We want more airlines to come to Nigeria to fly locally, regionally and internationally.
