SaturdayDecember 11, 2021 / 10:45 PM / by Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri/ HeaderImage Credit:  NewsBreakers

The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of theUnited Arab Emirates (UAE) presents its compliments to the Federal Ministry ofAviation (FMA) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and has the honour to referto the letter Ref. No. NCAA/DG/AIR/11/16/329 dated 9th December 2021, wherebythe Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) notified the Country Manager,Emirates Airline (EK) in Nigeria regarding the withdrawal of the ministerialapproval granted to that airline with respect to their Winter Schedule. TheNCAA further advised EK that this withdrawal becomes effective on Sunday 12thDecember 2021 at 2300Z and hence, EK "is granted approval to operate only oneweekly passenger frequency to Abuja on Thursdays".

The GCAA has the honour to highlight that such adecision by the NCAA is totally unjustified especially, as it has come to ourattention that their action is being taken against the background of Air Peacenot securing all 3 slots at Sharjah Airport which they desire. (Air Peaceinitially operated at Sharjah Airport, shifted to Dubai Airport and thenreturned to Sharjah airport. It would be unreasonable for an airline to expectany airport to maintain their slots when they ceased operating at thatairport.) In this regard, we wish to kindly advise you that Sharjah Airport iscurrently operating at 140% slot capacity, but with goodwill and tremendouseffort on their Side, this Airport was able to accommodate Air Peace with 1 ofthe 3 slots that this airline requested.

The GCAA wishes to stress that the action being takenby the NCAA is obviously not in line with the spirit of the agreed air servicesarrangements between our two Nations. As we are both aware, the relationsbetween our two brotherly countries are vintage in nature, one hallmark beingthe recent visit of the President of Nigeria to the UAE, which certainlymirrored the status of these positive relations.

Finally, we suggest that Air Peace should considerflying their two other flights to any UAE airport at which there are availableslots. As expected, the GCAA will support Air Peace in this activity, whererequired.

YourExcellency, your kind support is anticipated so that the NCAA reviews theirdecision and restores the approval of the Emirates Airline Winter Schedule, asfiled. In this regard, we wish to reiterate that this is a purely operationalmatter between Air Peace and Sharjah Airport and in any case it should haveabsolutely no implications for Emirates Airline.

About the Author

AbdullaBin Touq Al Marri is the UAE Minister of Economy and Chairman of the GCAA Board

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