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Saturday
December 11, 2021 / 10:45 PM / by Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri/ Header
Image Credit: NewsBreakers
The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) presents its compliments to the Federal Ministry of
Aviation (FMA) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and has the honour to refer
to the letter Ref. No. NCAA/DG/AIR/11/16/329 dated 9th December 2021, whereby
the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) notified the Country Manager,
Emirates Airline (EK) in Nigeria regarding the withdrawal of the ministerial
approval granted to that airline with respect to their Winter Schedule. The
NCAA further advised EK that this withdrawal becomes effective on Sunday 12th
December 2021 at 2300Z and hence, EK "is granted approval to operate only one
weekly passenger frequency to Abuja on Thursdays".
The GCAA has the honour to highlight that such a
decision by the NCAA is totally unjustified especially, as it has come to our
attention that their action is being taken against the background of Air Peace
not securing all 3 slots at Sharjah Airport which they desire. (Air Peace
initially operated at Sharjah Airport, shifted to Dubai Airport and then
returned to Sharjah airport. It would be unreasonable for an airline to expect
any airport to maintain their slots when they ceased operating at that
airport.) In this regard, we wish to kindly advise you that Sharjah Airport is
currently operating at 140% slot capacity, but with goodwill and tremendous
effort on their Side, this Airport was able to accommodate Air Peace with 1 of
the 3 slots that this airline requested.
The GCAA wishes to stress that the action being taken
by the NCAA is obviously not in line with the spirit of the agreed air services
arrangements between our two Nations. As we are both aware, the relations
between our two brotherly countries are vintage in nature, one hallmark being
the recent visit of the President of Nigeria to the UAE, which certainly
mirrored the status of these positive relations.
Finally, we suggest that Air Peace should consider
flying their two other flights to any UAE airport at which there are available
slots. As expected, the GCAA will support Air Peace in this activity, where
required.
Your
Excellency, your kind support is anticipated so that the NCAA reviews their
decision and restores the approval of the Emirates Airline Winter Schedule, as
filed. In this regard, we wish to reiterate that this is a purely operational
matter between Air Peace and Sharjah Airport and in any case it should have
absolutely no implications for Emirates Airline.
About the Author
Abdulla
Bin Touq Al Marri is the UAE Minister of Economy and Chairman of the GCAA Board
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