Kenya Airways has said that Nigeria, Ethiopia and Malawi are withholding about $28 million worth of revenues from the airline, CH-Aviation reported, citing CEO Allan Kilavuka.

“The blocked funds are mainly a cash impact as we are not able to access these funds. We are, of course, also concerned about the devaluation of these funds going forward,” the CEO said.

“Currently, we have approximately $28 million blocked in mainly Nigeria, Ethiopia and Malawi,” he added.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) had warned that airlines could not be expected to fly if they cannot realise the revenue from ticket sales, as Nigeria alone had blocked $464 million of total airline funds as of July 2022.

Earlier this month, Dubai-based Emirates announced putting on hold flight operations to Nigeria due to its inability to repatriate funds from the West African country.

“Emirates has tried every avenue to address our ongoing challenges in repatriating funds from Nigeria, and we have made considerable efforts to initiate dialogue with the relevant authorities for their urgent intervention to help find a viable solution,” the airline had said.

(Editing by Cleofe Maceda; cleofe.maceda@lseg.com)