Emirate airlines saga: Don’t succumb to foreign airlines blackmail, CBN urged

By Augustine Aminu

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been urged not to succumb to blackmail by Emirate airline or any foreign airline operating in the country.

This call was contained in a letter addressed to governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, by Global Peace Movement International, UK.

The letter signed by the group’s President General, Dr. Mike Uyi noted that foreign partners trading in Nigeria must be proportionate to national interest and not blackmailing Nigeria by demanding inappropriate Foreign exchange

Emirates Airlines on Thursday announced the suspension of its flight operations in Nigeria from September 1, 2022. It said the suspension became necessary following its inability to repatriate its funds from Nigeria.

But GPMI in its letter reminded the Airlines that the country cannot and will not manufacture dollars for them to repatriate their so called over $80million in Nigeria.

He said the country’s fragile economy should not be further decimated because of the funds of foreign airlines, accusing the airlines of being victims of their own plots and designs.

He said, “When they were competing furiously to outdo other airlines on the Nigerian route, didn’t they know of the dollar situation here before embarking on having multiple frequencies into Nigeria? They do two flights out of Lagos daily and one out of Abuja daily, bringing the total to three daily flights into Nigeria and 21 flights every week!

“Once they heard Air Peace was about to start flying to UAE in 2019, they applied to increase the Lagos frequency to three flights daily, just to stiffle the Nigerian airline out and dominate. They didn’t need all these flights but had to use them to kill competition.”

Uyi reminded the CBN governor that local airlines are also complaining of not having dollars to run their operations too. They too need dollars.

“Should we allow them to crumble?” He queried.

He advised the Federal government not listen to Emirates, adding that “You may do it when it is absolutely convenient to so do. Threats of flight reduction and suspension is insulting and nothingbut cheap blackmail”.

He went further to say, “Emirates funds are not trapped or blocked in Nigeria. The money is in their accounts in Nigerian banks. They are free to source dollars from other sources and repatriate their funds. It must not be from the Central Bank. Nigerian airlines do not get all their dollars from the CBN”.

He said further that as a solution, government should reduce their frequencies into Nigeria considerably to a level government could manage their dollar demands so as to stop this routine blackmail of our nation.

Nigerian airlines should be supported and encouraged.

Uyi said, “Why is Air Peace not flying London? Who is stopping them? Nigerians should begin to ask this question. An airline that flies directly to China which is a 14hour nonstop flight, yet it is being deprived of doing a six hour flight to London.”