Recently, Flynas signed a pilgrim airlift agreement with the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) for the 2024 Hajj operation. With a few weeks to the beginning of the airlift, what is your level of preparation?
As we have done in the last 10 years, Flynas is fully ready to airlift Nigerian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for the 2024 pilgrimage. As you are aware, Flynas has been in Nigeria since 2014 as part of the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. A fortnight ago, we officially signed a pilgrims airlift agreement with the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) for the 2024 hajj operation. Our Director for Business Development Mr Yasser Ajlan and Manager of Business Development Mr Hani Isma’il, flew from Saudi Arabia for that purpose. Flynas would airlift pilgrims from Borno, Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Niger, Sokoto, Kebbi, Yobe and Zamfara states to Saudi Arabia this year.
There has been a change of leadership at NAHCON after last year’s hajj operations. How would that affect the operation?
That is true. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed a new leadership for the Nigerian Hajj and Umrah apex regulator, NAHCON. Thankfully, the president has appointed square pegs in square holes. Barrister Jalal Ahmad Arabi’s appointment came at a vintage time and I am sure his decades-long experience as a professional lawyer, cerebral bureaucrat and federal permanent secretary will go a long way in overhauling Nigeria’s hajj commission to make it rank among the best globally. We are confident that Alhaji Jalal Arabi’s stewardship will further deepen the bilateral relationship between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia towards providing excellent services to Nigerian pilgrims. This is why after his appointment, we urged all hajj stakeholders to give maximum support and cooperation to the new NAHCON chairman to improve and enhance the welfare of Nigerian pilgrims. With his excellent antecedents, Alhaji Jalal Arabi will no doubt steer the affairs of the country’s apex hajj regulatory body excellently, if he gets the right support and cooperation. In this light, I want to reiterate that Flynas will continue to deploy its professional expertise and resources towards making the NAHCON chairman’s tenure a huge success for all stakeholders, particularly Nigerian pilgrims.
Let us talk about your fleet capacity, how many aircraft do you currently use?
As part of the regulation by NAHCON, to be commissioned as a carrier to operate hajj, you require a minimum of two aircraft with a capacity of 300, one for operation and the other as a backup. Let me not brag too much, we deployed seven aircraft for the 2023 hajj operation. We submitted all these aircraft to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) for their rebirthing and technical examinations and they all passed the technical examinations. All these aircraft have a minimum capacity of 400 passengers. So the deployment was seven aircraft to the Nigerian operations in phases one and two. We deployed and used all of them. We’ll deploy six aircraft for the 2024 operation. So the capacity we have is more than enough to carry more than the 30,000 if given the chance to do that. With over 100 trained and competent local ad-hoc staff, there is no gain in saying that Flynas’ entry into the Nigerian hajj ecosystem has tremendously helped in building the capacity of its workforce and stabilizing the airlift operations of pilgrims to and from Saudi Arabia.
The welfare of the pilgrims on transit is of paramount importance, there are times when pilgrims go to the airports and find no aircraft to airlift them. How is this situation handled?
This is a very good question. We try as much as possible to try to stick to aviation regulations. The aviation regulation states that if a pilgrim is at the airport for more than eight hours, the onus is on the airline to take care of him. We have been doing that even in the first phase of the operations. There are times when the pilgrims will come to the airport and if we have any delay for whatever reason, we bear the cost of the hotels. However, we never experienced that in the first phase of the 2023 operation in Nigeria. What we experienced was just a delay and we tried to fix them. We’ve done that in Lagos, Sokoto and Maiduguri. When the pilgrims were at the airports for more than six hours, we gave them breakfast, lunch or dinner as the case may be. In Saudi Arabia, where the pilgrims are at the airports for more than eight hours, we take them to a hotel and feed them, and when the aircraft are ready, we bring them back to the airport and airlift them to their destinations.
You spoke of delays at the airports, what are the major challenges you face so far?
Certainly, there must be some challenges particularly when it involves thousands of people. We sometimes face challenges with some states. For instance, our aircraft would be on the ground, but we’ll find out that some intending pilgrims do not have their BTAs, and some do not have their visas. The trouble is, if we keep an aircraft for eight hours to 10 hours, it is a big loss to us. Flynas is operating a chain operation across 19 different countries. So, we suffer this kind of loss, because as an airline, if you keep an aircraft that is supposed to spend like three hours for eight, or nine hours, it is a big loss. So these are some of the challenges. However, the situation has been improving over the years. But these are areas we will advise the executive secretaries of the State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Boards (SPWBs) to work hard in ensuring that whatever requirement is needed for pilgrims to travel, they have to be ready before the airlift time. These include BTA, visas, and yellow cards, among others.
How is Flynas dealing with luggage and Zamzam water delivery?
For Zamzam Water, it has been a practice with Flynas and other airlines to get the numbers required for each pilgrim. We transported Zamzam water from Saudi Arabia to Nigeria in the first leg of the operation. In the first leg of the airlift, the aircraft leaves Saudi Arabia for Nigeria to bring the pilgrims. We take advantage of that to take the necessary Zamzam required to each airport. In 2023, I think we delivered about 35,000 to 40,000 bottles of Zamzam water to Nigeria through the various airports we operated from.
For the luggage, we did the weighing in Makkah at the pilgrims’ hotels as a practice. We try to get the official weight which is about 32 kilograms. We try to restrict that for safety reasons, though some pilgrims may complain that Flynas is very strict. Yes! We have to be very strict. Aircraft is not something you play around with. You have to do the load analysis, you have 430 pilgrims on an aircraft, and you have analysed that everybody should have 32kg weight of his bag plus the hand luggage. So, we try as much as possible to ensure pilgrims do not exceed 32kg. We ensure that each pilgrim who leaves Saudi Arabia arrives at their destination with their luggage that very day.
