Flynas, a Saudi—designated Nigerian Hajj air carrier, has signed a pilgrims airlift agreement with the Nigerian government for 2025 operations.
This is coming at a time when the West African country announced that it would begin the airlift of its pilgrims to Saudi Arabia on May 5, 2025.
The 2025 Hajj pilgrims airlift agreement was signed by the Chief Commercial Officer of Flynas Mr Khaled Alhejairi, and Chairman and CEO of National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) Professor Abdullahi Saleh Usman on Monday at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
The agreement was signed in the presence of the Flynas Director for Business Development Mr Yasser Ajlan, Manager Business Development Mr Hani Isma’il and Managing Director, First Planet Travels and General Sales Agent (GSA) of Flynas in Nigeria, Alhaji Umar Kaila.
Mr Alhejairi has promised to sustain the airline’s sterling legacy of providing superlative services to Nigerian pilgrims.
“We want to assure NAHCON that Flynas would continue to provide comfortable and enduring traveling experiences to our esteemed customers in Nigeria during the Hajj operation,” Mr Alhejairi has said.
He said since the grand entry of Flynas into the Nigerian Hajj ecosystem in 2014, “Our brand has continued to fulfill all its obligations to our esteemed pilgrims without let or hindrance. We are happy that our experiences in Nigeria in the last 10 years have been that of excellent service delivery to our dear pilgrims. We would continue to improve on our services for the benefit of our great pilgrims.”
Earlier in January, the Hajj commission had approved Flynas and three others: AirPeace, Max Air and Umza Aviation Services Limited for 2025 Hajj operation.
Flynas is the biggest and the most experienced of the selected airlines, and it has been airlifting Nigerian pilgrims to the holy land in the last 10 consecutive years successfully without hitches.
With a projected state quota pilgrims of 71,274, the Nigerian Hajj commission has preliminary allocated 22,894 pilgrims to Flynas, 9,145 to Air Peace, 23,342 to Max Air and 15,893 to Umza Air.
With over 100 permanent and local adhoc workforce, Flynas has been in Nigeria as part of the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
The airline’s entry into the Nigerian Hajj sector has tremendously helped in capacity building of its workforce as well as stabilizing the airlift operations of Nigerian pilgrims to and from Saudi Arabia.
