Emirates Airlines, one of the largest air carriers in the world, is set to return to Abuja route on December 15, almost a year after it suspended its flight operations in Abuja.
The Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika disclosed this in his tweet @hadisirika’ obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.
Sirika had earlier announced that the Federal Government was discussing with airline to return to the route after the repair of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport runway.
He said recently it was announced that the airline would resume the route on November 1 but later disclosed on Monday that the resumption was not feasible.
“Glad to inform that Emirates will recommence Abuja flight on the 15th of December, 2017. Thanks for bearing with us,” Sirika tweeted.
However, there is yet to be any official statement from the airline concerning the resumption of their operation on Abuja route.
When NAN contacted the airline on twitter to confirm the Minister’s statement, the response from Asmaa, Emirates Social Media Team was, “we don’t have any updates on that.
“Please check our operational updates via https://t.co/X5ZZu7Gss0 updates.aspx,” it said.
The airline had in October 2016 announced that it would suspend its four flights per week from Abuja to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Some of the Emirates’ factors responsible for its decision to cut operations were inability to access foreign exchange for its operations, high cost of aviation fuel and the state of the Abuja Airport runway at that time. (NAN)