Air peace suspends Dubai flights over visa ban

Air Peace spokesman Stanley who disclosed this yesterday in a statement said that the suspension of its three week­ly flights to UAE would take effect from Tuesday, Novem­ber 22, 2022 till further notice

The statement 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, passengers whose flights are affected by this development can mail our call centre team-callcenter@flyairpeace.com- to attend to their concerns.”

Recall that Emirates, the flag carrier of UAE, had on October 29, 2022, suspended flight ser­vices from its base in Dubai to its routes in Nigeria, cit­ing its inability to repatriate its trapped funds out of the country.

The suspension of the Dubai routes by Air Peace and Emirates would offer airlines like Qatar Airways, Turkish, Ethiopian Airlines and others to hike their air­fares for Nigerian travellers.

Already, a return ticket in the economy class of Emir­ates Airlines to Dubai was oscillating between N800,000 and N1.2 million before the airline suspended flights to Nigeria, while Air Peace was between N400,000 and N700, 000, depending on the time the flight was booked.