AIR PEACE has received slots to fly into the Dubai airport (DXB), according to the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority.
This was contained in a letter titled, ‘Operation of Air Services between Dubai and Nigeria’ and addressed to Air Peace Chairman Allen Onyema.
The letter dated December 13, 2021, said that the UAE would be releasing slots to Air Peace to fly into terminal one of the DXB as a ‘gesture of goodwill and support of United Arab Emirates and Nigeria relations.’
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It read, “The Dubai Civil Aviation Authority presents its compliments to the honorable management of Air Peace, Nigeria. Relations between our two countries go a long way back and we value these relations immensely. We surely wish to facilitate easy and safe travel for the people, between our two brotherly countries.
“We write in reference to Air Peace’s possible/intended operations to/from Dubai Airports (DXB). We have received information from Dubai Airports, with regard to slot availability at DXB- Terminal 1 and as a gesture of goodwill and in support of UAE and Nigeria relations, in case Air Peace wish to start their flights, slots have been blocked by Dubai Airports as detailed below.
“Slots available and blocked for Air Peace are the following:
A0540LT DO800LT — All days and A0510LT DO8OOLT – without day 6.”
It added, “As these slots cannot be blocked indefinitely, we would highly appreciate if Air Peace could kindly reach out to Dubai Airports-ACL and inform them of their intention to operate by Thursday 16, December, 2021 and accordingly confirm the blocked slots.
“Dubai Airports have also confirmed that dnat, the ground handling agents at DXB, have sent the ground handling quotation to Ms. Reharn Mustafa, Country Manager. Also, Emirates Flight Catering is working on the quotation and should send it out latest by tomorrow morning.
“For landing permissions, they could contact our Air Transport Section as detailed below: Landing Permissions: air.transport@dcaa.gov.ae We look forward for Air Peace to operate with utmost confidence to/from DXB at the soonest.
“Dubai Civil Aviation Authority avails itself of the opportunity to renew to the honorable management of Air Peace, the assurances of its highest consideration and reiterates its support at all times.”
Prior to now, Air Peace had sought three weekly passenger flight frequencies to Sharjah International Airport but was only granted one. The Federal Government, following this reaction, limited Emirates Airlines flights from 21 weekly frequencies to one.
Emirates went further to suspend flights between Nigeria and Dubai effective December 13, 2021. Checks by The ICIR on Flightradar24, a global flight tracking service, showed that no Emirates plane from Nigeria went to Dubai on Monday December 13, 2021. However, flights landed on Sunday December 12, 2021.
An Emirates B77W (A6-EPT) Sunday flight from Lagos to Dubai with an Actual Time of Departure (ATD) of 6:39 pm landed at its destination at 4:20 am.
However, the flights scheduled for Monday, December 13, did not take off at all as it was cancelled.
A Lagos flight to Dubai (77W) scheduled to take off at 6:10 pm and land 4:15 am was cancelled.
Similarly, an EK786 Emirates flight bound for Dubai at exactly 7 pm on Monday from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport was also cancelled.
Experienced Business reporter seeking the truth and upholding justice. Covered capital markets, aviation, maritime, road and rail, as well as economy. Email tips to jolaoluwa@icirnigeria.org. Follow on Twitter @theminentmuyiwa and on Instagram @Hollumuyiwah.