The airlift of first batch of Nigerian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia scheduled for Friday, May 9, may not be feasible due to an ongoing Hajj traffic sharing and landing permits disagreement between the two countries.
The National Hajj Commission of Nigerian (NAHCON) officials led by its Chairman and CEO Professor Abdullahi Saleh Usman and three permanent commissioners have travelled to Owerri, Imo state capital, on Thursday ahead of the inaugural flight— that would officially mark the beginning of 2025 Hajj season to be attended by Vice President Kashim Shettima as guest of honour.
However, aviation officials in Abuja and Jeddah told this newspaper this night that the inaugural flight may not take off as planned because the Air Peace airline scheduled to fly them to Madina, Saudi Arabia, was not given landing permits by the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA).
It was learned that GACA has decided to withdraw the Air Peace aircraft landing permit “because Nigeria has reneged on their agreement to allow the Saudi Arabian airline Flynas to airlift 40 percent of Nigerian pilgrims.”
In retaliation, Nigerian authorities have also withdrew a landing permit granted to Flynas — which aircraft is already mid air coming from Madina to Lagos this night.
The Flynas aircraft is on its way to Lagos to begin the airlift of Lagos state pilgrims on Friday. According to the flight schedule, Flynas would operate two flights on Friday, one from Lagos and the second one from Birnin Kebbi.
In 2014, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia signed a Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) that allows the kingdom airline (Flynas) to transport 40 percent of Nigerian pilgrims for pilgrimage.
In 2025, Nigeria gave the Saudi airline 12,506 pilgrims — which is less than the 40 percent of the country’s 40,600 state governments quota pilgrims.
NAHCON, according to officials, had introduced a new air carrier — UMZA Aviation Services — allocating 10,163 pilgrims to them, Air Peace and Max Air has 5,128 and 15, 203 each. This action drew the ire of GACA which said it won’t grant UMZA airlcraft permits to land in any airport in the kingdom.
Officials in Abuja who spoke to this newspaper this night said, diplomatic channels have been opened between the two counties to resolve the impasse — at least to allow the Saudi airline which is midair to land in Lagos.
Stakeholders are pointing accusing fingers at the NAHCON chairman for reportedly “mismanaging” the pilgrims allocations ab initio. They said, due to his lack of capacity, the chairman failed to share the pilgrims reduction decision with the Saudis through diplomatic channels.
Professor Usman was said to have also arbitrarily showcases his preference for UMZA — a new entrant into the Hajj system— against Air Peace with big capacity and even Max Air with bigger industry experience and capacity.
Insiders are saying that the 2025 Hajj operation may face more challenges, principally, “occasioned by the NAHCON boss capacity issues- particularly his reading and writing challenges in English language.”
“The confusion is not surprising at all. In fact, more would come as the operation begins. I said it is not surprising because the NAHCON chairman has to rely on amateur translators to interpret memos and official correspondences to him,” one of the officials in the commission said.
