United Arab Emirates has banned Air Peace flights to Sharjah.
It however allowed the airline to continue with airlifting its passengers to Nigeria from the city, which is near Dubai.
The Nigerian carrier made the disclosure on Thursday in a statement signed by the management, saying that UAE stopped the flights as part of its COVID-19 measures, but allowed flights from Sharja to Nigeria.
“The Management of Air Peace wishes to notify the flying public that the UAE Government has stopped the airlifting of Nigerians from Nigeria to UAE as part of its COVID-19 measures.
“However, flights bringing Nigerians back from UAE are not affected. To this end, Air Peace flight from UAE( Sharjah-Dubai) to Lagos is not affected. Normal flights shall resume when the restriction is lifted from February 28, 2021. Our esteemed customers whose flights are disrupted by this development can send a mail to us via [email protected] for a possible reschedule,” the statement said.
Diplomatic row may be brewing between Nigeria and United Arab Emirates as Emirates on Tuesday announced suspension of flights from Nigeria to Dubai but allowed inbound flights to Nigeria from Dubai.
This was a response to earlier stance of the federal government, which stopped Emirates from conducting COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test (RDT), which the airline insisted its passengers must be administered with four hours before their flight to Dubai.
The federal government had stopped the test pending when it would provide the infrastructure for such tests at the Abuja and Lagos airports and subsequently suspended Emirates outbound flights from Nigeria.
But the federal government reversed the ban when Emirates agreed to abide by the condition; that it had to stop conducting the test, which was in addition to the approved 72 hours PCR test for all Nigerian travellers leaving the country.
But Emirates surprised the federal government by cancelling all its outbound flights from Nigeria and on Tuesday announced that it would resume on February 28.
UAE had also banned all transit flights bringing Nigerian passengers to Dubai, thus ensuring that no airline brings Nigerian passengers to the Arab nation.
But there are indications that the UAE authorities has insisted that without the RDT test no passengers would be allowed into Dubai and now the United Arab Emirates, Sharja is one of the Emirates like Dubai.
THISDAY
