Virgin Atlantic, one of the foreign airlines operating in Nigeria has said that it has no plan to withdraw operation from Nigeria.
The clarification is coming on the heels of insinuations making the round that the airline is one of the airlines planning to stop flight operations into Nigeria.
The response of the Virgin Atlantic became necessary following the pulling out of the Spanish national Airline; Iberia Airline from the country.
The airline was said to have pulled out following the refusal of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to exempt foreign carriers from its Forex policy, which has prevented forein airlines from repatriating monies made from tickets sales to their home country.
Abelnews gathered that the introduction of the policy by the CBN has made it impossible for the international carriers to repatriate over $500 million trapped in several commercial banks in the country.
Commenting on the insinuations that Virgin Atlantic was planning to pull out from Nigeria, the Marketing and Communications Manager, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Kudirat Scott-Igbene said that the airline has no intension to pull out of Nigeria.
She further explained that Nigeria remains a very important market to the airline, having operated flights in the country for close to 15 years.
Scott-Igbene assured that the airline would remain in Nigeria and would continue to provide excellent services to its passengers.
According to him, “We have no plans to withdraw from Nigeria which remains an important market for Virgin Atlantic. We are proud to have flown between Lagos and London for almost 15 years and will continue to provide our unique service to our Nigerian customers”.
Abelnews recalled that before Iberia finally pull out of Nigeria, international airlines operating into the country have been complaining about the Forex policy introduced by the Apex bank, which according to the airline is affecting the operations of the airline.
Abelnews also gathered that following this development, the foreign airlines in the country met with officials of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to find a way to address the issue to prevent the airlines from being strangulated.
Virgin Atlantic operates seven frequencies into Nigeria weekly.