Nigerian Airlines at Liberty of Operations from Major Airports in UAE as FG Signs New BASA 

It is a new Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as Emirates Airline on Tuesday returned to the airspace of Nigeria.

Recall that two years ago, Emirates Airline exited from Nigeria owing to diplomatic impasse and inability of the airline to repatriate their revenue as a result of the challenge that Nigeria faced with forex at the time.

The resumption of flights in Nigeria by the foreign carrier was in line with President Bola Tinubu’s resolve on his assumption of office to restore relationships with most of the major partners and countries around the world.

Prior to this time the BASA between Nigeria and the UAE was not purely reciprocal.

While Nigerian airlines were restricted from operating from prime airports in UAE, the Emirates Airline had a field day on major airports in Nigeria especially Lagos and Abuja.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, speaking at the resumption ceremony of the airline at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, on Wednesday, said the government identified the UAE as a major and important partner and country that we should restore our relationship with.

However, according to him, he took concrete steps to ensure that the relationship was restored through a proper review of the BASA between the two countries, UAE and Nigeria, securing a purely reciprocal agreement for the two.

By this, the anomaly of prime airports no longer exist as Nigerian carriers are now at liberty to operate from any of the UAE airports.

Keyamo said: “The relationship went downhill before, you know, with visas, suspension of visas, suspension of their flights. And for Nigerians, it was especially damaging because we know that Nigerians have a lot of investments in the UAE.

“So, eventually, it was not an adventure in self-glorification, it was actually a fight for the people of Nigeria, especially.

“And I’m sure you see that the tempo around is that people are excited, people are happy that we are restoring relationships with the UAE.

“And that is why I took all the pain to go back there, to sign a new BASA, I went there, we signed a new air service agreement, bilateral air service agreement, you know, redefining our relationship altogether again, making it more healthy, making it more open, and for the benefits, especially of the Nigerian people, and I decided to accompany them there.”

“They (Emirates) say they are back to stay, they are not going anywhere again, because I think the suspension hurt both sides. They felt it and we felt it. But now they are back. Now that they are back,” Keyamo added, asking “what benefits will the Nigerian travel industry derive from this?”

Outlining the benefits, he noted that first of all, there are more options for indigenous carriers who are also flying to destinations in the Middle East and other lands, disclosing that “the first thing we did when we went to negotiate a new BASA was to also secure the route for our local operators.

“It was one of the major things I stood my ground on. And if you look at the new agreement, it said to any destination; so, nobody is going to have to say, well, this is prime, this is not prime airport.

“Our agreement with them is they fly to any destination, we fly to any destination in the UAE. So, it’s purely reciprocal in that respect.”

The Minister pointed out that the reciprocal agreement makes room for a variety of choices now, and more competition on different international routes, stressing that the essence is to ensure a healthy competition that would lead to competitive prizes for the benefit of the Nigerian people.

“I’m sure you know, without mentioning an airline, when this was suspended, I’m sure you know that some other airlines ripped the benefits.

“Many of them increased their frequencies to Nigeria. Many of them increased their prizes because the seats were not available, flights were not available, and all of that.

“You also know that why we fought for this, is that Dubai in particular is a major hub of the world. It links virtually every country of the world.

“I have not seen any major country that is not linked from Dubai. So, for Nigerian travellers, it is easy to access any part of the world by simply travelling to Dubai and connecting to that country,” he explained.

Keyamo added that the federal government also secured a code-share agreement for the domestic airlines.

His words: “And for our airlines too, I can speak, I can tell you that we also secured some kind of code-sharing agreement.

“We told them that if they want to code-share, our airlines will have the right of first refusal.

“We said our local airlines will have the right of first refusal because there will be a lot of code-sharing in this respect now.

“And as I speak with you, they are speaking with many of our local operators. I went with some of them, I’m sure you saw some of them.

“Emirates is speaking with a lot of our local operators now, and that is also for the benefit of our local aviation industry.”