The disagreement between the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and Emirates Airlines has led to an intervention by the Government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
This intervention came in form of a letter to the Federal Ministry of Aviation, dated December 10, 2021, imploring an urgent solution lest the situation snowballs.
Musa Shuaibu Nuhu, in a statement, disclosed that the action followed the decision of the Sharjah Airport authorities to approve one out of three slots requested by Air Peace, the only Nigerian carrier operating to Dubai via Sharjah.
This, in turn, led to the Emirates announcing its decision to suspend all its flights to Nigeria indefinitely.
In order to resolve the dispute, the UAE Minister of Economy and Chairman of the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA Board), Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, said the issue that led to the withdrawal of the Emirates schedule was an operational one between Air Peace and Sharjah Airport.
He further stated that it had nothing to do with the UAE Goverment.
The letter addressed to Minister Hadi Sirika read, “The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) presents its compliments to the Federal Ministry of Aviation (FMA) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and has the honour to refer to the letter Ref. No. NCAA/DG/AIR/11/16/329 dated 9th December 2021, whereby the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) notified the Country Manager, Emirates Airline (EK) in Nigeria regarding the withdrawal of the ministerial approval granted to that airline with respect to their winter schedule