Air Peace Suspends Dubai Flights over Visa Ban

Chinedu Eze

Air Peace has announced the suspension of its flight service to Dubai following the government of United Arab Emirates (UAE) decision to stop issuing visas to Nigerians.

Emirates Airlines recently stopped flight operations to Lagos and Abuja in protest of the inability of the Nigerian government to provide dollars for the airline to repatriate its revenues earned in Nigeria.

Also about a fortnight ago, UAE had through licenced travel agents in that country announced the stoppage of issuance of visa to Nigeria and 19 other countries in Africa.

Owing to this, in a statement signed by Air Peace management, the airline said, “We hereby inform the public, especially our Dubai passengers, that effective from Tuesday, November 22, 2022, we shall be suspending our Dubai operations till further notice.

“This is consequent upon the persisting non-issuance of visas to Nigerian travellers by the government of the United Arab Emirates and the accompanying inconveniences.

“Air Peace has been operating into UAE even with the country’s recent travel restrictions, but given the heightening hurdles Nigerian travellers are facing in accessing the country, it has become imperative that we halt our operations to that destination. We shall provide further updates as the situation progresses,” the airline said.

It also urged passengers whose flights were affected by this development to mail the airline’s call centre team at callcenter@flyairpeace.com- to attend to their concerns.

Reports had indicated that the federal government may have held back about $567 million of the trapped funds, which government through the Minister of Aviation has opened discussion with airlines on how to repatriate