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Emirates Airlines, the airline owned by the United Arab Emirates, plans to resume its flights to Nigeria starting October 1, 2024. This is after Emirates suspended flights to Nigeria about two years ago. The recent lifting of the visa ban by the country, barring travels between both countries, saw Emirates announce its intention to resume flights to Nigeria.
In May 2024, Emirates announced the resumption of daily flights from Lagos to Dubai, thus ending a long pause in services initiated due to financial disputes. The suspension had come up due to the inability by the airline to repatriate over $85 million ticket sales from Nigeria, a situation that has given rise to increasing tension between the two nations and hence leading to the UAE imposing a visa ban on Nigerian citizens.
This is said to have affected not just leisure and business travel but also put a serious strain on relations between the two countries. It is now resuming, with the date reaching its end in October, and Emirates has opened ticket sales to Nigerian passengers. The airline places the starting economy class fare at $665.30 on its website, while first-class tickets would go for $8,852. That would provide much-needed connectivity to passengers looking to make flights between Nigeria and Dubai for business, tourism, or personal reasons.
When aviation services are approved to resume, the Dubai Visa Processing Centre, DVPC, will also reopen, meaning that Nigerians would once again be able to apply for visas to enter Dubai.
We are pleased to advise that the DVPC is now open for visa applications for passengers traveling to Dubai,” an email titled “Re: Update on Dubai Visas” sent to Nigerian travel partners read. It is, therefore, expected to go down well with those who had been making anxious attempts to travel or regularize their stay in the UAE. Although this move in itself goes a long way in normalizing travel between the two nations, some categories of applicants are still under restriction.
In this respect, Olumide Ohunayo, based in Abuja, an aviation analyst, is of the opinion that these restrictions on some categories of applicants will, in due course, get clearer as diplomatic negotiations go on. The government has been involved in talks with authorities of the United Arab Emirates over the unresolved issues, with a view to getting things to fall in place and ease travels and business relationships between the two countries.
As the reopening date draws closer, with October 1, a lot of Nigerians are most likely to take advantage of such travel opportunities, which may signal a hopeful return to regular interaction and collaboration between Nigeria and the UAE. Resumption of flights by Emirates and the visa application reopening could, therefore, be said to be key steps in warming up relationships and making way for smoother traffic between both countries.
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