Emirates has from Thursday suspended flights to and from Nigeria for ten days.

The Dubai-based airline says it has not been able to repatriate funds from the West African country.

The last Emirates flight left Lagos at 20:00 local time on Wednesday. The airline says affected passengers can make alternative travel arrangements or cancel their plans.

Before the suspension, the airline had reduced its flights in Nigeria from 11 to seven per week.

It had earlier indicated it would stop flights from 1 September “to limit further losses and impact on our operation cost”.The government owes them $85m ($73m) it made from ticket sales.

Last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria released $265 million to airlines operating in the country to prevent a crisis in the aviation sector.

The shortage of the dollar has made it difficult for the bank to settle the debt.

British Airways too, has reduced its flights over failure to recover funds.

America's Delta Airlines says it will from 4 October suspend flights from New York to Lagos due to low demand.