After Nearly 2 Years, Emirates Resumes Flights To Nigeria

Natasha Decker
·2 min read
Airplane taking flight.
Airplane taking flight.

Emirates airlines will resume flights to Nigeria starting October 1.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based airline announced on May 16 that flight EK783 will go and come between Dubai and Lagos, Nigeria, starting later this year. The plane servicing flyers is a Boeing 777-300ER with a passenger capacity of 354. The cabin’s configuration includes eight first-class suites and 42 business-class seats. The remaining 304 passenger seats are in Emirates’ economy class.

The airline promises flyers between Dubai and Lagos the renowned Emirates standard. Passengers will dine on “regionally inspired multi-course menus” and drink from a selection of “premium beverages.” The flight offers 6,500 entertainment channels, including 23 Nollywood films.

The plane will also carry Emirates SkyCargo, transporting “more than 300 tons of belly-hold cargo capacity in and out of Lagos every week.” Emirates claims the cargo transport will support Nigerian businesses by exporting national commodities, including “Kola Nuts, food, beverages, and urgent courier material.” Moreover, the airline believes the imports trading will support global markets such as Malaysia, Hong Kong, Bahrain, and others.

“We are excited to resume our services in Nigeria,” noted Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ deputy president and chief commercial officer. “The Lagos-Dubai service has traditionally been popular with customers in Nigeria, and we hope to reconnect leisure and business travelers to Dubai and onwards to our network of over 140 destinations. We thank the Nigerian government for their partnership and support in re-establishing this route and we look forward to welcoming passengers back onboard.”

Why and When Did Emirates Stop Flights to Nigeria?

The relationship between Emirates and Nigeria has been fraught in recent years. According to Reuters, the airline suspended flights to the West African nation in August 2022 because of its “inability to repatriate funds from Nigeria.” The UAE also banned Nigerians from entering the Middle Eastern country by pausing visa approvals.

The Associated Press further explained that in July 2022, Emirates allegedly had $85 million tied up in Nigeria, which was increasing by $10 million monthly. The airline claimed its decision to stop flights to Nigeria — Africa’s largest economy — was a “difficult decision.”

In September 2023, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan resolved the visa ban issue.

In its May 2024 press release about the Dubai to Lagos flight resumption, Emirates said, “As a major economic hub in Africa, Nigeria and the UAE have built strong bilateral trade relations over the years, headlined by Lagos as the nation’s commercial center.”