Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, SAN, has said Nigeria airlines are now free to fly into any airport in the United Arab Emirates following the revised bilateral air service agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and the UAE.
The Minister who spoke at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) on arrival with Emirates Airlines which just resumed flight operations to Nigeria after two years, stated that the reopening of flights to Nigeria is in the best interest of the Nigerian people.
The Emirates Airline’s return followed the resolution of the issue of trapped funds with the Nigerian government.
Keyamo said, “The first thing we did when we went to negotiate a new BASA with the UAE was to also secure the route for our local operators. Our agreement with them is that they fly to any destination, we fly to any destination in the UAE.”
He said the return of Emirates would boost competition on the route as passengers now have a variety of choices to make.
“This is what this is all about, to ensure healthy competition and a healthy competition leads to competitive prices for the benefit of the Nigerian people,” he added.
The Minister recalled that some airlines increased their prices when Emirates suspended operation, adding that the Nigerian government fought for the return of Emirates because of the strategic position of Dubai as a global travel hub.
“For Nigerian travellers, it is easy to access any part of the world by simply travelling to Dubai and connecting any flight and for our airlines too, we have also secured some kind of code-sharing agreement. We have told them (Emirates) that if they want to code-share, our airlines would have the right of first refusal,” he said.
