'Granted!' UAE releases seven flight slots to Nigeria

The Federal Government has revealed that the United Arab Emirates has granted Nigerian carrier Air Peace seven flight slots.

The move, which was confirmed by the Ministry of Aviation on Tuesday, comes after the Federal Government canceled Emirates’ 21-slot winter schedule due to a breach of reciprocity.

Air Peace had previously been denied permission to fly three times a week to Sharjah, near Dubai.

It also added Nigeria to its travel blacklist, joining the United Kingdom, Canada, and Argentina, due to incidences of COVID-19’s omicron form.

While the UK has cleared Nigeria and 10 other countries from its red list, the UAE has still maintained the travel restrictions.

The presidential steering committee on COVID-19 has assured Nigerians that the Federal Government is working assiduously to ensure that the flight restrictions are lifted in about a week.

Meanwhile, also on Tuesday, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, met with representatives of Emirates Airline, the Chairman/CEO of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, and heads of agencies in the aviation sector over the flight flow between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Nigeria.

Others present at the meeting were the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema, and his aviation counterpart, Hadi Sirika.

After the meeting which lasted for about three hours behind closed doors, Gbajabiamila told journalists that it was a fruitful deliberation where issues at stake were discussed.

The Speaker said both Nigeria and UAE had good diplomatic relations and that they would not allow the current row to mar the long-standing friendship.