Photo caption : Pix Khalid Al Mannaei, CEO, UAE VP office, Political Affairs presenting a gift to Mr Festus Keyamo, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development (middle) flanked by two Emirates cabin crew ladies during a ceremony to welcome first Emirates flight back to Nigeria at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos on Wednesday
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development Mr Festus Keyamo has revealed that Emirates Airlines has started talking with some Nigerian domestic airlines for a codeshare arrangement.
The resumption of flight into Nigeria is happening two years after the airline suspended it’s operations over blocked funds amounting to over $85 million.
This is just as he also said that the new Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) arrangement Nigeria signed with with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would enable Nigerian carriers to operate directly from the country to any of the seven emirates in the UAE including Dubai.
He spoke today Aviation Correspondents shortly on arrival from Dubai at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
Speaking further, Keyamo said that the Dubai based airline was already in talks with Nigerian carriers on codeshare arrangements.
The new BASA signed between Nigeria and UAE, the Minister explained would offer Nigerian airlines the right of first refusal in the event of any codeshare arrangement by the airline.
“The first thing we did when we went to negotiate a new BASA arrangement with the UAE was to also secure the routes for our local operators. I stood my ground on this and if you look at the new BASA, it said to any destination. Our agreement with them is that they fly to any destination and we also can fly to any destination in the UAE.
“It is purely s reciprocal. We now have varieties of choices; we have more competition on more routes. It is to ensure healthy competition and a healthy competition leads to competitive prices for the benefits of the Nigerian people.
“As I speak with you, they are speaking with many of our local operators and that is for the benefit of our local industry. We are also free to fly to any airport in the UAE. They have Sharjah, Etihad, Dubai and others. We insisted on that. I can bet you this is for the entire good of the country,” the Minister noted.
He said that the severance of relationship between the two countries impacted on the two countries, adding that Nigerians had lots of investments and interests in the UAE.
“And you can see that people are excited and happy that we are restoring our relationship with the UAE and that is why I took the pains to go back there to sign a new BASA, defining our relationship more and making it more healthy, more open and especially for the benefits of the Nigerian people.
” I am sure you heard it from them, they said they are back to stay because I think the suspension hurts both sides – we felt it and they felt it. I am sure you know that when the route was suspended, some airlines reaped the benefits, they increased their frequencies to Nigeria,” Keyamo said
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