Jeddah Debacle: Air Peace Clarifies Position on Visa Cancellation of 177 Nigerians by Saudi Authorities

The management of Air Peace has clarified that the cancellation of the visas of 177 Nigerians out of the 264 passengers that flew with the the airline to Jeddah on November 12, 2023, was not its fault.

According to the airline, it has become imperative to state the real fact in the face of conflicting commentaries in the public domain.

This was contained in a statement signed by its Chief Operating Officer (COO), Oluwatoyin Olajide on Wednesday.

The airline stressed that as a scheduled flight operator with vast international operations experience, understands and complies with established protocols governing international flight operations and is not culpable of any infraction in this respect.

Olajide explained that the visas of all passengers on the said flight to Jeddah were checked and verified through the requisite procedures and were vetted to be valid before departure.

The statement read in part: “For the avoidance of doubts, Air Peace is a scheduled operator between Nigeria and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and the said flight was indeed a SCHEDULED Flight and not a Chartered/UMRAH/HAJJ or any Special flight.

“This scheduled flight means we are allowed to airlift all categories of passengers with different types of Visas as long as their Visas are VALID and approved by the Saudi Arabian Authorities. We are not limited to UMRAH or HAJJ Visas alone on a scheduled flight.

“The visas were verified using the visa confirmation platform provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Saudi Arabia which confirmed the validity of each passenger visa before passengers were allowed to check-in for the flight.

“All the Visas of the 264 passengers were duly verified, confirmed, and accepted as authentic for the trip through the Visa Portal provided by the Saudi Arabia Authorities, if not, no passengers would have been able to depart from Nigeria. This is just one of two steps required before a passenger is accepted on the flight to Saudi Arabia.

“The next step is the use of the Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS). We equally use this system to determine the admissibility or otherwise of each passenger on that flight.

“The APIS was live between Air Peace’s reservation system and the Saudi Arabia National Travel Security Center Carrier Portal to transmit passenger details prior to departure, to the Saudi Authorities in order to further determine the admissibility or otherwise of the passengers”.

According to Olajide, No Notice of Cancellation or any form of denial from the Saudi Authorities was received against any of the passengers despite the live transmission of their details.

She explained further that the passenger manifest containing the names of all passengers on board the flight was sent ahead to the Saudi Arabia National Travel Security Center Carrier Portal before the flight departure, yet no Notice of Visa cancellation was received against any of these passengers.

She continued: “We would like to reiterate that Air Peace strictly followed the profiling procedures stipulated by the Saudi Arabian Authorities and we are still shocked that upon arrival in Jeddah, the visas of our passengers were cancelled without any cogent explanation even till now.

“The immigration officers of Saudi Arabia were equally surprised that Valid Visas were cancelled the way it was done.

“While we empathize with the affected passengers for this development and assure them of our full compliance with the provisions guiding international travels, we wish to state that up till this moment, the Saudi Arabian authorities have not provided any explanations for the sudden and unexpected cancellation of the Visas”.

The COO added that Air Peace has continued to cooperate with the Authorities to unravel the issues surrounding the Visa cancelation.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian government says investigation has also began into finding out the cause of the issue.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Francisca Omayuli in a statement said the Saudi authorities are yet to give reasons for the cancellation of the visas, except for 18 of the passengers who were outrightly banned for various offences committed in the past.

According to the Nigerian Consulate in Jeddah, Air Peace airlifted 264 passengers and landed at the King Abdulaziz International Airport – Hajj Terminal Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Monday, November 13, 2023.

It was on arrival at the Hajj Terminal that the Saudi Immigration authorities informed the passengers that their visas had been cancelled.

Conseqently, 177 passengers were made to return on the same flight back to Nigeria, while 87 passengers were cleared by immigration and allowed entry into Jeddah.

“Nigeria and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are traditional and strategic partners, who are willing to guard against a reoccurrence of the incident.

“The affected passengers are therefore, implored to keep calm, while the matter is being resolved”, the statement added.