According to a letter addressed to the government and obtained by reporters, Dubai’s Emirates wants to cut flights to Nigeria this month as a result of difficulties remitting earnings from the continent’s most populous country.
Emirates stated in the letter that it will reduce the number of flights to Lagos from 11 to seven by the middle of August. It also stated that as of July, it had $85 million trapped in the nation, a sum that had been increasing by $10 million every month.
If the central bank, which restricts access to foreign currency to manage a severe dollar shortage, does not address airlines’ problems, additional airlines may follow suit, according to industry observers.
In a letter dated July 22 to aviation minister Hadi Sirika, Emirates stated, “We have no alternative but to take this action, to alleviate the continuous losses Emirates is facing as a result of cash being trapped in Nigeria.
Requests for comment from the aviation ministry’s spokeswoman went unanswered.
In a statement sent through email, Emirates said that difficulties with money repatriation were affecting its capacity to conduct business in Nigeria and that efforts to address the issue had so far had only sporadic success.
Emirates said it wanted to maintain a full schedule but declined to comment specifically on the letter.
The value of the naira on the black market in relation to the dollar hit a record low last week. The value of the naira was cited as a concern by the central bank.
Nigeria, which depends on oil for almost 90% of its foreign exchange, is having trouble producing because of pipeline theft and years of underinvestment.
Similar foreign exchange restrictions occurred in 2016, and a number of airlines cut back on their Nigerian service, including Iberia and United Airlines. Last year, the latter reopened a Nigerian route, but Iberia has not.
The International Air Transport Association said in June that Nigeria was withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from foreign carriers doing business there.
