UAE’s Passengers Restriction Policy Will Increase Price Of Air Tickets For Nigerians-Onyema

Air Peace Chief Executive Officer, Allen Onyema, has said that Nigerians intending to travel to the United Arab Emirates should expect to pay very high air travel fares due to the new policy adopted by the Middle East country against Nigerian airlines.

UAE had in a letter dated March 24, 2021, told the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that inbound flights to the country must not exceed 200 passengers for a two weeks period.

The Air Peace boss said in an interview on Arise News Business Report that the policy if sustained would be burdensome on both passengers and airline operators.

“The consequences of these kinds of decisions is that the few people that will fly will have to pay through their noses. So it is not good. It is weird”

He described the action by the UAE government on the Nigeria’s travellers as a “cat and mouse game between Nigeria and the UAE.”

Dubai International Airport had imposed a compulsory antigen test for passengers boarding from Nigeria.

The UAE also banned Nigeria flights for several weeks over the negative PCR requirements.

But the Nigerian government had asked the airlines to suspend the tests pending when the facilities are available.

The request was followed by a 72 hours suspension of the operation of Emirates Airline in Nigeria.

He added, “It’s all about recyprocity if you give me one, I will give you one. If you give me two, I will give you two. So it is weird for you to say that you need only 200 passengers out of Nigeria in  two weeks.”

According to him, UAE may not have considered the economic implications of the policy on travellers.

Onyema said, “So first of all what of the economics of that kind of decision. What is there for the airlines? How are you going to do it? Are you going to fly once in two weeks? That is what it means because for example in air peace, we have a 777 that could carry over  360 passengers to UAE. We have three 777, they carry over 300 passengers.

“So it means that okay, you limit yourself to 200 passengers at a time. Will that be enough to take care of your fueling alone? The fueling between Nigeria and UAE and back is over 40 million. So how much are you going to charge these passengers?”