The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, says the federal government has resolved all contending issues with Emirates Airline.
Mr Keyamo disclosed this during an interview on Arise TV on Monday.
According to him, the airline has officially informed him of their readiness to resume operations to the Nigerian routes.
“Emirates flight resumption is almost happening. I just received a letter from Emirates. The letter is on my phone now,” he said.
“They have gone through all the gamut and they are ready to come back. They will announce the date because, to restart a route, they have to get an aircraft for that route.
“I am announcing to Nigerians for the first time; that I just received a letter from Emirates now. The letter is with me. I have a hard copy thanking you for all the efforts we made.”
The minister also said the initial announcement by a presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, on the issue was hastily done.
“Mr. President was the showman here. He was the one who pushed for it. He made my job easy because he went there, and had a diplomatic shuttle to resolve all the issues.
“That was why I said the last announcement was hasty and not fake news.
“They will announce the date for their next flight. We have received a letter confirming that all the issues have been resolved and prepared to start coming back. It may be before June.
On the repatriation of funds, Mr Keyamo confirmed that 100 percent of the trapped funds belonging to airlines have been cleared by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
“The two sets of funds that were trapped. Some people got it confused when they said it was fake news,” the minister said.
“They said they have cleared it, others said they have not been cleared. They were the funds that were trapped by the CBN.
“That’s the ones they called the forward sales that they had bidded for but the CBN could not meet its obligation.
“CBN accepted the bid but they couldn’t provide the funds for it. It amounted to about $160 million. That is the government’s own obligation. We have cleared it.
“The other ones are for the commercial banks. When they sell their tickets, their funds are trapped in commercial banks, the commercial bank cannot raise the FX to fund and transfer to them.
“That is not government responsibility but the commercial banks to do something to raise those funds and transfer those funds.
“That is where the confusion came in but government own responsibility regarding the central bank, they have cleared 100% of all the trapped funds,” he added.
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