Emirates Airline has a “substantial” amount of ticket sale revenue trapped in Nigeria and has made only slow progress in repatriating blocked funds out of Africa’s biggest economy, it said on Friday.
A day earlier Nigeria’s aviation minister Hadi Sirika told reporters that the Dubai-based carrier had received most of its funds out of Nigeria and had about $35 million that still needed to be released.
Emirates declined to say how much was trapped in Nigeria, but a spokesperson said about half of the amount in its backlog was overdue for repatriation and that the process “remains beset with constant delays”.
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Nigeria is withholding $743 million in revenue earned by international carriers operating in the country, the highest amount owed by any nation, global airline industry association IATA said last week.
Sirika said on Thursday that the country was aiming to release money from foreign airlines’ ticket sales.
