Saudi ‘orders’ all Air Peace’s 264 passengers back to Nigeria on arrival in Jeddah

Saudi authorities in a surprising move, reportedly on Monday cancelled the visa of all the 264 passengers airlifted by Air Peace on arrival in Jeddah from Kano and ordered the airline to return them back to Nigeria.

Reports said the flight took off from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos via the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano on Sunday night and arrived in Jeddah on Monday without issues, but on landing, the Saudi Arabia authorities announced that all the passengers’ visas had been cancelled.

Sources said all the passengers and the airline personnel were shocked at the cancellation of the visas because, during check-in, the passengers went through the Advanced Passengers Prescreening System (APPS), which was also monitored by the Saudi Arabia authorities before the flight left Nigeria.

Meanwhile , there are suggestions that  what happened was a strategy to discourage the airline from operating to the destination.

According to aviation sources, since Air Peace started the operation, it has been recording high load factor and even the flight expected to leave on Tuesday to Jeddah was already fully booked.

The report said when the Nigerian embassy waded in Saudi authorities were said to have reduced the number of passengers that would be returned to 177 from 264.

Saudi Air has been operating directly from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia and since Air Peace started flight service to the Middle East nation at relatively lower fares, it has been receiving high patronage and as a Nigerian carrier, it helps to conserve foreign exchange for the country.

A source from the Nigerian embassy in Jeddah said that even the Saudi immigration personnel said that they didn’t know who cancelled the visas but that they were cancelled when the airline was already airborne to Jeddah.

“The airline was exonerated in all this as the Advanced Passenger Prescreening System(APPS) which is live between both countries would have screened out any invalid visa and its passenger. The system accepted all affected passengers and passed them on,” Business Day quoted the source to have said.

Those deported were 177 passengers and Air Peace has already left with them back to Nigeria.