Emirates resumed flight operations to Nigeria on 1 October 2024, with flight EK783 touching down at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, at 3:32pm, its first arrival from the United Arab Emirates since the airline suspended the route in October 2022. The airline said it would operate a daily service between Lagos and Dubai using a Boeing 777-300ER, with EK783 departing Dubai each morning and the return service, EK784, departing Lagos in the evening.
Emirates had pulled out of the Nigerian market in October 2022 after it was unable to repatriate an estimated $85 million in revenue trapped by Nigeria's foreign exchange restrictions, a decision that came to symbolise the wider financial strain on the sector that year. The suspension also disrupted broader diplomatic and travel ties between Nigeria and the UAE, including visa access for Nigerian travellers.
A Diplomatic Resolution
The path back began in October 2023, when President Bola Tinubu secured an agreement with the UAE president during a diplomatic visit that included a commitment to lift a visa ban on Nigerians and work toward resuming flights between the two countries. Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo signalled progress on the issue repeatedly over the following months, and on 16 May 2024 Emirates formally confirmed it would resume Nigerian operations from 1 October, in a statement from deputy president Adnan Kazim.
Keyamo confirmed the resumption personally, posting that he had travelled to the UAE alongside Emirates executives and Emirati officials for discussions and had boarded one of the airline's flights as part of the arrangements to formalise its return.
Restoring a Key Route
Emirates' return restored a route many Nigerian travellers and businesses had relied on for connectivity through Dubai to more than 140 destinations worldwide, and was cited by government officials as evidence that efforts to resolve foreign airlines' trapped-fund concerns, which had also driven Emirates out of the market once before in 2020, were beginning to pay off.
