Several Nigerian air passengers are presently stranded at airports across the world as the fiasco between the federal government of Nigeria and the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) took another dimension on Monday.
Recall that Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) withdrew the ministerial approval granted Emirates Airlines by the Ministry of Aviation following the refusal of the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) to grant equal rights to the sole Nigerian carrier, Air Peace flying to Dubai via Sharjah.
However, due to this fiasco, UAE reportedly stopped foreign airlines from airlifting Nigerians to Dubai from across the world.
Sources at the two international airports on Monday morning said Ethiopian Airlines, Turkish Air and other international airlines going to Dubai from their bases refused to board Nigerians whose final destination is the UAE.
The airlines it was gathered insisted that they have been directed not to airlift Nigerian passport holders to Dubai.
However, hundreds of passengers are affected by this directive as Ethiopian Airline offloaded their Nigerian passengers to Dubai.
”UAE says no entry for Nigerian passengers from any airline. Ethiopian just offloaded all passengers heading to Dubai. We are voiding Dubai bound tickets,” a source at the Airport told our correspondent.
LEADERSHIP reports that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had withdrew the ministerial approval granted Emirates Airlines by the Ministry of Aviation.
It was gathered that Emirates Airlines had 21 frequencies weekly to two major airports in Nigeria; Lagos and Abuja.
The director-general, NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, said that it withdrew the approval following the refusal of the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) to grant equal rights to the sole Nigerian carrier, Air Peace flying to Dubai via Sharjah.
He regretted that despite this approval, the GCAA refused to grant Air Peace three weekly frequencies to Sharjah, which the airline requested for, rather approved just one frequency weekly.
According to him, the GCAA had attributed its refusal to grant the three frequencies to the airline to inadequate slots in Sharjah airport, stressing that the government would continue to protect Nigeria’s businesses.
He said, “The Nigerian Government was gracious to grant Emirates Airlines 21 frequencies it requested for. The airline wants to operate 14 weekly flights to Lagos and another seven weekly to Abuja airports.
“However, Air Peace only requested for three weekly flights to Sharjah, not even Dubai airport, but the CAA refused the airline. The CAA only approved one weekly frequency to the airline. The only excused they gave was that they don’t have enough slots. Where is the justice in this? That is capital flight out of Nigeria. Nigeria should protect its own,” he said.
source: leadership Ng
