It seems the emergence of COVID 19 came with the persistent rift in aviation relationship between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Nigeria. Recently, the UAE reversed a travel ban on Nigeria, India and South Africa barring flights to and from the cities of Lagos and Abuja commencing from 21st of June.

The UAE had previously refused to fly passengers who did not have a pre-boarding rapid diagnostic test (RTD). However, last Saturday, it announced a new travel protocol that allows Nigerian travellers with negative PCR test results taken within 48 hours to departure to fly. It had published a travel protocol, noting that Dubai’s Committee on Crisis and Disaster Management had proposed new entrance protocols for travellers, beginning June 23, 2021, as part of reducing inbound travel restrictions.
This sudden re-imposition of the travel ban thus came as a shock to multitudes of Nigerians who had been looking forward to the lifting of the ban. The initial ban had been in place since February this year following a spat between the two countries over the methods for conducting COVID 19 tests on travellers to and from UAE. The face-off between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates over travel procedures has been a reoccurring issue.

The faceoff began at the peak of the Covid-19 epidemic in 2020. The UAE implemented several preventive measures to combat the virus’s spread, including suspending the issuance of UAE visas to all countries until March 17, 2020. After entering the pandemic’s recovery phase, the country loosened several restrictions on July 7, allowing travellers from a variety of countries to take the appropriate precautions, such as demonstrating negative PCR test results within 92 hours of arriving in the UAE.

Visitors from Nigeria were included in this category. However, Nigeria was compelled to ban Emirates Airlines following the lockdown on the country’s aviation industry.
https://thejournalnigeria.com/uae-vs-nigeria-aviation/