THE inaugural airlift of Nigerian pilgrims has unprecedentedly began with a rescue operation as Aero Contractors failed to produce an aircraft for the transportation of the first batch of Nigerian pilgrims to 2023 hajj in Saudi Arabia.
Aero Contractors is one of the five air carriers selected by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) to airlift the 75,000 state pilgrims and officials to Saudi Arabia this year. The other four are Flynas, Max Air, Azman Air, and Air Peace.
Findings from NAHCON revealed that Aero Contractors, which was also allocated 7,833 pilgrims, was to perform the inaugural flight with Nasarawa State pilgrims on Thursday in Abuja.
However, about 48 hours to the inaugural flight which will officially mark the beginning of transportation of intending pilgrims to 2023 hajj. it was revealed that Aero Contractors had no aircraft on ground to ferry the pilgrims.
To worsen the situation, the airline was not able to secure landing slots from the Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) in Jeddah and Madinah airports.
This embarrassing development, insiders said, had forced the hajj commission to scramble an alternative – which was drafting Max Air to provide “rescue operation” by airlifting the 560 prospective pilgrims from Nasarawa State to the holy land.
A rescue operation in hajj airlift system refers to the deployment of another airline to evacuate the passengers of another air carrier when the latter fails to do so due to technical or logistical reasons.
A hajj industry stakeholder said, “this is the first time Nigeria would begin its inaugural flight with a rescue operation in NAHCON’s 17 years history. I hope this is not a harbinger of operational chaos.”
When contacted, Aero Contractors media consultant, Simon Tumba, refused to explain why their airline failed to provide aircraft for the inaugural flight and also failed to secure slots in Jeddah and Madinah airports months after their selection and weeks after signing the airlift agreement.
Mr Tumba said he would consult with the Managing Director of Aero Contractors before responding. After he did, Mr Tumba said, “Aero Contractors has pending issues with NAHCON.” When he was prodded further, he referred our reporter to NAHCON and Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
“Go and discuss with NAHCON and NCAA. They know the issues,” the Aero Contractors spokesperson said.
This newspaper made unsuccessful efforts to get the comment of NCAA’s spokesperson, Sam Adurogboye, on the issue.
Repeated calls put through to to his telephone line was busied. He has yet to respond to a text message requesting his comment on the matter.
The spokesperson and company secretary of Max Air, Malam Shehu Wada, didn’t answer calls put through to his known telephone line. He didn’t response to a text message requesting for comment on whether Max Air would do a one-off rescue operation for Aero Contractors, or it would take over the pilgrims allocated to Aero Contractors.
However, further findings revealed that the “issues” the Aero Contractors official was talking about had to do with the inability of NAHCON to pay mobilization fees to the airlines as ahead of the inaugural flight as agreed upon in the airlift contract.
The commission’s foot dragging in remitting funds to the airline “was one of the issues that disrupted 2022 hajj airlift. The airlines were paid the balance of their money for 2022 hajj only about two months ago,” an insider said.
An insider told this newspaper that the process of selecting and vetting of the hajj air carriers “was apparently compromised by nepotistic tendencies. What happened today (Thursday) questioned the airlines screening process. “
An aviation expert told our correspondent that “hajj operation is a specialized field even in the aviation sector. It is not an all-comers affair for domestic airlines to dabble into.”
The expert added that, “from the NAHCON-approved airlines, only two have the capacity to airlift our pilgrims to Saudi Arabia and back home without operational hiccups. These airlines are Flynas and Max Air. That is the bitter truth.”