Hajj: Saudi Arabia grants Nigeria landing extension till Thursday 

Following the plea by the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Alhaji Zikrullah Kunle Hassan, the Saudi Arabia aviation authorities have granted Nigeria a 24-hour extension to enable all of the country’s intending pilgrims to be airlifted to perform this year’s Hajj.

With the extension, the country is expected to have airlifted all its pilgrims by 12 midnight tomorrow, Thursday, July 7 instead of the July 6 earlier granted by Saudi Arabia’s General Authority on Civil Aviation (GACA) for the closure of airspace.

Hassan arrived in Saudi Arabia Jeddah and proceeded to Makkah leading NAHCON officials to hold discussion with the authorities with a view to enabling the about 3,000 Nigerian pilgrims who are yet to be airlifted to Saudi Arabia to be airlifted for this year’s Hajj.

The Saudi authorities had earlier given Nigerian airlines, Azman and Max Air, up till July 5 to complete their outbound airlift operations, while Saudi carrier, Flynas, was granted July 6 extension.

With the latest development, both Max Air and Azman airline would continue their airlifting operations till Thursday.

In view of the development, NAHCON has concluded arrangements with Flynas to operate three rescue flights for pilgrims in Kano and Abuja.

Before the extension of time granted to Nigeria, about 30,000 pilgrims with 920 officials were airlifted from various departure points in the country in 73 flights into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

About 7,000 pilgrims out of the 8,620 pilgrims from private tour operators were already airlifted to Saudi Arabia.

Nigeria was allocated 43,008 slots by the Saudi Arabia authorities to perform this year’s Hajj exercise, which is said to be the fifth pillar of Islam.

The last time international pilgrims were allowed to perform the annual spiritual exercise was in 2019, while as a result of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, only pilgrims resident in Saudi Arabia performed Hajj both in 2020 and 2021.

Meanwhile, most of the pilgrims have moved to Makkah from Madinah where they spent some days on visitation to historical Islamic landmarks as well as the Prophet Muhammad’s mosque ahead of the commencement of Hajj on Thursday.

Other Nigerian pilgrims, according to NAHCON, were to depart Madinah for Makkah on Wednesday, while all officials will be in Makkah by Thursday.

In another development, NAHCON and the leadership of the Association of Hajj and Umrah Operators in Nigeria (AHOUN) have assured that all licenced tour operators pilgrims will be flown out of Nigeria before 12 midnight Wednesday.

The rescue operation will be conducted in Abuja, Lagos, and Kano with FlyNas providing three aircraft for the operation, while another Saudi airline, Kam Air, contacted on standby in case of any need for deployment of another aircraft.

NAHCON has assured of its determination to ensure all Nigerian intending pilgrims are airlifted to perform this year’s Hajj.