Due to the Sudan crises, representatives of local airlines including Air Peace, Azman Air, Max Air, and Aero Contractors, selected to airlift Nigerian pilgrims for the 2023 Hajj have turned down signing a letter of agreement with NAHCON.
The signing of the airlift agreement, which was scheduled for today, has been postponed until Tuesday of the following week as the airlines requested consultations from their superiors.
Fly Nas, the only foreign airline among them, signed the agreement nonetheless since it was given about 28,000 pilgrims, which represent 40 per cent of the pilgrims.
Due to the country’s close proximity to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, sub-Saharan pilgrims would be impacted by the closure of the Sudanese airspace.
The preliminary agreements between NAHCON and the airlines make it expensive and necessitate a reconsideration of the pilgrims’ cost to choose a different route.
The NAHCON set the exercise’s minimum fare at N2.88 million and its maximum amount at N2.9 million, which was eventually raised to N3.2 million in April.
Ada Peter
