Emirates Airline is taking with several Nigerian carriers on establishing code share agreements, Festus Keyamo Minister of aviation and aerospace development said on Wednesday.
Keyamo disclosed immediately after a joint meeting with Emirates officials on arrival at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
Codeshare is an interline partnership where one carrier markets service and places its code on another carrier’s flights. This offers carriers an opportunity to provide service to destinations not in their route structure.
Under the ‘code share’ agreement which is common in the international aviation sector, the originating airline and the supporting airline agree on a formula for sharing the ticket cost.
According to the minister, the ministry of aviation have secured some code sharing agreements for local operators and have agreed with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that domestic airlines must have the right of first refusal during the code share agreement.
“There would be a lot of code sharing in this respect. As I speak with you, Emirates is speaking to many of our local operators now for the benefit of our local aviation industry.
“When Emirates suspended operations, some airlines reaped the benefits. Many foreign airlines increased their frequencies to Nigeria and many increased their prices because seats and flights were not available.
“We fought for this because Dubai in particular is a major hub of the world. It links virtually every country of the world. I have not seen any major country that is not linked to Dubai. So, for Nigerian travellers, it is easy to access any part of the world by simply traveling to Dubai and connecting to that country,” Keyamo said.
The minister said now there would be more options for Nigerian travellers, adding that when the federal government signed the Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) with the UAE, it was to also secure the route for local operators.
“Our agreement with UAE is that domestic airlines can fly into any destination in UAE and vice versa. First of all, we know that we have variety of choices now. We have more competition on different international routes now. This is what it is all about; ensuring healthy competition which leads to competitive prices for the benefit of the Nigerian people,” the minister said.
He thanked President Bola Tinubu for making the recent developments in the aviation sector possible.
“When the president came into office he made it clear that he would like to restore relationship with most of Nigeria’s major partners and companies around the world. We identified UAE as a major partner and company that we should restore relationship with.
“The relationship went down hill with the suspension of visas and flights. For Nigerians, it was damaging because we know that Nigerians have a lot of investments in the UAE. So it was a fight for the people of Nigeria and I’m sure the people are happy that we are restoring relationships and we have signed a new BASA.
“We will be redefining our relationship and making it more healthy for the benefit of the Nigerian people. They say they are back to stay. The suspension hurts both side. They felt it and we felt it but now they are back,” Keyamo said.
Recalled that Emirates used to operate to Lagos and Abuja until September 30, 2022 when it suspended operations citing inability to repatriate trapped funds amounting to over $80m at the time.
The UAE also slammed a visa ban on Nigerians which effectively stalled Nigerian-UAE flights as Air Peace and other carriers stopped operating to UAE from Nigeria.
The resolution of the dispute between Nigeria and the UAE was prioritized by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and driven by Festus Keyamo.
After the federal cleared the foreign airlines’ trapped funds of about $900m and held series of meetings with the Emirates, the UAE carrier announced in May of its plan to resume flights operation to Nigeria on October 1.
On Tuesday, the Boeing 737-300ER touched down at the MMIA, Lagos signaling the return of Emirates to Nigeria.
