AFTER the intervention of Nigeria’s embassy, the Saudi authorities finally canceled the visas of 170 Nigerian passengers from the initial 264 onboard Air Peace, before the airline departed with the deported passengers.
According to reports, the inital flight departed the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, through Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano on Sunday night and arrived Saudi Arabia’s major city, Jeddah, Monday.
On arrival, the Saudi Arabian authorities cancelled the visas of all passengers despite having monitored when the passengers went through the Advanced Passengers Prescreening System, (APPS) before the flight left Nigeria.
According to reports in the Vanguard newspaper, the development was more interpreted as a strategy by the Arabians to discourage the airline from operating to the destination.
It was learnt that since Peace Airlines became operational on the route, it has been recording a high load factor and even the flight expected to leave on Tuesday to Jeddah was already fully booked.
Air Peace operate the route on relatively lower fares, and this might have increased patronage.
Saudi Air has been operating directly from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia.
It was only the passengers who were shocked by the development. A Nigerian embassy source reportedly said that even the Saudi immigration personnel confessed that they didn’t know who cancelled the visas after the airline was already airborne to Jeddah.
With Peace Airlines blameless in the confusion, as the APPS, monitored by immigration officials from both countries, screened and cleared the passenger, aviation stakeholders finger aeropolitics.
The Chief Executive Officer, Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult, Nigeria, Group Captain John Ojikutu, said the action of the Saudis is aero politics and diplomacy.
Asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intervene in the matter, he said that it is important for the Nigerian government to back any Nigerian carrier designated to operate international destinations.
Ojikutu called on the government to designate Nigerian airlines approved to operate out of the country as flag carriers and support them.
He said: “There is geopolitics there and there is also diplomacy.
Government must come out and intervene. The government must be behind Air Peace now to ensure that it is not denied its rights as contained in the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) between the two countries. Nigeria must not keep quiet.”
