United States carrier, United Airlines has announced plans to return to Nigeria operations, four years after it exited the country due to currency crisis that prevented the airlines from repatriating sales proceeds back to its home country.
The airline said it plans to expand its global route network with a new, non-stop service between Nigeria and the United States from the Spring of 2021.
United Airlines will become the only airline serving Washington, D.C. non-stop from Lagos, with three weekly flights, according to report.
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“We are excited to announce our return to Nigeria. This new nonstop service will strengthen our international route network and provide our customers from Nigeria with direct access to the United States and the possibility to connect via our Washington Dulles hub to destinations across the Americas,” said Marcel Fuchs, United’s Managing Director International Sales.
“Connecting Lagos to the U.S. will open up new opportunities for both business and leisure travelers and help our customers in Nigeria reconnect with friends and family around the world.”
The new route is subject to government approval and tickets will be available for purchase on united.com and the United app in the coming weeks.
United’s new service from Lagos to Washington Dulles will be operated with Boeing 787-8 Dream liner aircraft.
The announcement of the return will mark United’s return to Nigeria which the airline previously served up until 2016.
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The irony is that the country is again experiencing currency crisis similar to the one in 2016, which led to the exit of the airline from the country.
Currently, many foreign investors wanting to move their money out of the country have not been able to do so due to lack of access to enough dollar on the domestic forex market.
Though the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold around $51 million to offshore investors two weeks ago, the amount sold was a far cry from the about $5-7 billion backlog of demand by foreign investors.
The CBN has been rationing dollars to endusers in abid to conserve foreign exchange reserves which have down to around $35 billion in the face of declining forex revenue from crude oil exports.
For your on the go exchange rate conversion, check out our forex platform
