Air Peace passengers denied entry into Saudi Arabia over visa cancellation
A Nigerian airline, Air Peace, has been forced to return 177 passengers to Nigeria after the Saudi Arabian authorities cancelled their visas on arrival in Jeddah on Monday, BusinessDay reports.
The passengers were part of the 264 people airlifted by Air Peace from Kano via Lagos on Sunday night for the Umrah pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
According to a source close to the airline, the passengers had valid visas and went through the Advanced Passengers Prescreening System (APPS), which was monitored by the Saudi Arabian authorities before the flight departed from Nigeria.
However, on landing in Jeddah, the passengers were informed that their visas were cancelled and they had to go back to Nigeria.
The source said that the airline and the passengers were shocked by the sudden decision, which seemed to be a deliberate attempt to frustrate the airline’s operations to Saudi Arabia.
The source said that Air Peace had been enjoying high patronage since it started flying to Saudi Arabia, offering lower fares than the Saudi Air, which had been operating directly from Nigeria to the Middle East country.
The source also said that the Nigerian embassy in Jeddah intervened in the matter and managed to reduce the number of passengers to be deported from 264 to 177.
A source from the Nigerian embassy in Jeddah confirmed that the Saudi immigration officials did not give any reason for the visa cancellation, saying that they were cancelled when the airline was already airborne to Jeddah.
The source said that the airline was not at fault as the APPS system, which is live between both countries, would have screened out any invalid visa and its passenger.
The source said that the 177 passengers were already on their way back to Nigeria as of Monday evening.
Industry experts have described the incident as a case of aeropolitics and diplomacy, calling on the Nigerian government to intervene and protect the rights of the Nigerian carrier.
John Ojikutu, an industry expert and the CEO of Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult, Nigeria, said that the Nigerian government should stand firmly with Air Peace and designate it as a flag carrier, so that other countries would respect it as a representative of Nigeria.
He said that the government should also apply the principle of reciprocity and demand an explanation from the Saudi Arabian authorities for the visa cancellation.
“The action of the Saudi Authorities is shocking. There is aero politics there and there is also diplomacy. There is the need for the Nigerian government to stand firmly with Nigerian carriers and also designate them as flag carriers; so that other countries will know that they represent Nigeria.
“Government must come out and intervene. The government must be behind Air Peace now to ensure that it is not denied its rights as contained in the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) between the two countries. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs must not keep quiet. Nigeria must not keep quiet. Ideally, the government is expected to stand behind any of the country’s airlines that it designates to fly overseas,” Ojikutu said.
