Emirates Airlines and Kenya Airways say they will suspend flights to Abuja, the Nigerian Capital.
Emirates in a statement announced it will suspend flight from October 22 2016, while Kenya Airways says it will stop flights from November 15.
According to Emirates, the reason for its decision is irregularities in the foreign currency repatriation policy of Nigeria while Kenya Airway says its decision is part of its restructuring and efforts to cut losses.
Prior to Emirates’ complaint, a number of airlines had pulled out of Nigeria owing to hardship in repatriating foreign currency on naira-dominated tickets sold in the country, coupled with hardship in getting aviation fuel.
As a result, the CBN had last week approved a Special Secondary Market Intervention Retail Sales (SMIS) for airlines operating in the country.
This important one-off exercise is dedicated to the clearance of the backlog of matured Foreign Exchange obligations. (TV360 Nigeria)