Nigeria’s Air Peace suspends flights to Dubai because of visa ban
Nigerian carrier Air Peace is putting its flights to Dubai on hold, citing the non-issuance of visas by the UAE Government as the reason for the service suspension.
From November 22nd, 2022, the airline’s flights from both Abuja and Lagos to Dubai will be suspended. Air Peace has said that the suspension will be in place “until further notice”.
Air Peace began flying to Dubai International Airport (DXB) from Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS) in March 2022. The three weekly flights have since been operated by the carrier’s flagship Boeing 777-300 aircraft. These flights were later complemented in April by a weekly service to Dubai from Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (ABV).
When announcing the route suspensions, Air Peace said, “This is consequent upon the persisting non-issuance of visas to Nigerian travelers by the government of the United Arab Emirates and the accompanying inconveniences. Air Peace has been operating into UAE even with the country’s recent travel restrictions, but given the heightening hurdles Nigerian travelers are facing in accessing the country, it has become imperative that we halt our operations to that destination. We shall provide further updates as the situation progresses.”
Air Peace is not the only airline to pause flying between Nigeria and the UAE. Last month, Emirates made the decision to suspend flights for a second time between the two nations, in an ongoing row over funds from ticket sales that were not released to the airline by the Nigerian Government. Most recently, flights have been suspended since October 29th, 2022, after negotiations failed, with Emirates stating,
“This [the airline’s proposed agreement] included the repatriation and receipt of at least 80% of our remaining blocked funds by the end of October 2022, in addition to providing a guaranteed mechanism to avoid future repatriation accumulation challenges and delays. Under these extraordinary circumstances, Emirates had no option but to suspend flights to/from Nigeria from October 29th, 2022 to mitigate against further losses moving forward.”
Prior to the current situation, Emirates had been keen to grow its presence in Nigeria, and had recently increased its Dubai to Lagos flights to 11 per week, and its Dubai to Abuja services to daily. It remains to be seen if and when these will be resumed, and if the same higher frequency of flights will be kept.
With Air Peace’s route suspension, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways is now the only carrier to offer direct flights between Nigeria and the UAE. However, plenty of one-stop options remain for passengers wanting to fly to or from Dubai, including Ethiopian Airlines via Addis Ababa (ADD) and British Airways via London Heathrow (LHR).
