As a result of the airline’s inability to repatriate its earnings due to a currency shortage in the West African country, Nigeria, Emirates has hinted that it may have to reduce the number of its flights there.
Emirates stated in a letter to Nigeria’s Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika that it will start reducing its daily schedule from 11 to 7 beginning in the middle of August 2022. According to Reuters, the letter stated, in part, “We have no alternative but to take this action, to alleviate the continuous losses Emirates is facing as a result of payments being frozen in Nigeria.”
The challenges Emirates has encountered trying to get its profits from Nigeria back to Dubai have given rise to complaints. The business estimated that as of last month, it had around $85 million stranded in the Nigerian economy. Emirates added that attempts to fix the issue haven’t or barely shown any results. The difficulty has meanwhile continued to affect Emirates’ commercial viability in the most populous nation in Africa.
Due to Nigeria’s deteriorating foreign exchange problem, a great number of other foreign airlines that operate there have also experienced significant difficulties in remitting their profits. As of May 2022, the Nigerian government was withholding up to $450 million in earnings from foreign airlines, according to a previous article by Business Insider Africa.
There are worries that other international airlines would soon reduce their flights to Nigeria in a similar manner to Emirates. Nigeria’s currency issue has gotten worse over time. On the black market, the currency was valued at N695 for $1 as of August 1st, 2022.
