Festus Keyamo has announced that a UAE airline is preparing to resume flights to Nigeria soon.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has finalized arrangements to resume flights with Nigeria before the onset of summer.

Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, made this disclosure during an interview on Arise News on Monday, April 8. Keyamo mentioned that Emirates Airline had communicated its preparedness in a letter addressed to the Nigerian Government.

He clarified that the developments stemming from previous discussions were genuine and not fabricated, albeit conveyed hastily.

“Emirates flight resumption is almost happening. I just received a letter from Emirates. The letter is on my                      phone now. They have gone through all the gamut and they are ready to come back. They will announce the                  date because to restart a route, they must get an aircraft for that route.

I am announcing to Nigerians for the first time; that I just received a letter from Emirates now. The letter is                 with me. I have a hard copy thanking you for all the efforts we made. Mr President was the showman here. He             was the one who pushed for it. He made my job easy because he went there, and had a diplomatic shuttle to                 resolve all the issues.

That was why I said the last announcement was hasty and not fake news. They will announce the date for their             next flight. We have received a letter confirming that all the issues have been resolved and prepared to start                   coming back. It may be before June.”

In addition to Emirates suspending flights to Nigeria in 2022, the UAE Immigration Department informed its trade partners and travel agencies that it would cease accepting visa applications from 22 countries.

Notably, 20 of these countries were African nations.