By Dickson Omobola

Two years after the United Arab Emirates, UAE, flag carrier, Emirates, suspended operations in Nigeria, the Middle East airline, Tuesday, landed at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, MMIA, Lagos.

At 3:32 pm, flight number EK 783 touched down at the old terminal of the MMIA, confirming the carrier’s resumption.

However, before the flight, a Senior First Officer at Emirates, Moha Madugu, had expressed his happiness on X, formerly Twitter, stating: “A very special day for me today, I have the honour of operating our inaugural return flight to Lagos, Nigeria. Today I will be flying both the Emirates and Nigerian flag very high. Thank you, Emirates. A flight time of slightly over eight hours today. #EkoOniBaje.”

In November 2022, Emirates suspended flight operations to Nigeria over its inability to repatriate its $85 million revenue-trapped funds.

The suspension was the second time the airline halted flights to Nigeria with the first occurring in August 2022.

Speaking on the development, a travel analyst, Mr Olumide Ohunayo, told Vanguard: “The departure of Emirates from their routes, those 21 flights a week affected 85 per cent to 90 per cent of their passengers who go to points beyond Dubai, beyond the UAE. It affected or contributed to the high rate of ticket fares on international routes.

“There was a large chunk of seats that was taken away by Emirates, and that reduced competition. The few airlines left capitalised on the fact that Emirates suspended operations. One of them was Qatar Airways and other airlines from Egypt and Morocco. All just used that opportunity to jack up their fares.

“Emirates pulled out and it affected the industry. There was a loss of revenue in the country’s aviation eco-chain. Everybody had that hit because Emirates was not there, from the agencies to the taxis, to the airport taxis, to the service providers, even the catering, everybody felt the pain of their departure.”