Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo SAN has said that progress is being made in efforts to ensure the resumption of Emirates Airlines flights to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Keyamo said this in a Thursday night post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
He said this was part of the discussions held when his counterpart in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar paid him a working visit in his office.
Recall that Dubai-based Emirates Airline suspended flights to Nigeria on November 3, 2022, over its inability to repatriate its trapped revenue.
President Bola Tinubu on Thursday, directed that issues affecting Nigeria’s relations with Emirates Airline and issuance of visas to Nigerians by the UAE should be “immediately’’ resolved, emphasising that he stands prepared to “personally’’ intervene.
President Tinubu stated this while receiving Letters of Credence from three envoys at the State House: Ambassador of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Mr. Awall Wagris Mohammed; Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba, Mrs. Miriam Morales Palmero, and Ambassador of United Arab Emirate, Salem Saeed Al-Shamsi.
While receiving the UAE Ambassador, Tinubu said: “We are a family with UAE. We only live in separate rooms, but we are in the same house. We should look at the issues as a family problem, and resolve it amicably.
“As you know in every family, there are peculiarities. You can have an erring son, or daughter, but we must work together. We need to agree on core aviation and immigration issues.”
In his X post, Keyamo said progress was being made on the matters.
“Earlier today (Thursday), I met my counterparts in the FCT and Foreign Affairs Ministries to jointly resolve issues involving our Ministries.
“The first is to jointly work with the FCT Ministry to resolve the issue of the FCT indigenes who need to be compensated and relocated before the construction of the 2nd runway at the Abuja airport can commence in earnest. The contractors have been mobilised to move to site.
“The second is to work with the Foreign Affairs Ministry to resolve the issue of the resumption of Emirates Airline flights to Dubai/UAE and the related issue of resumption of issuance of Dubai visas to Nigerians.
“We are presently making progress on these issues,”