Despite diplomatic shuttles and assurances by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Saudi Arabia, authorities there have cancelled the visa of 264 passengers whose Air Peace plane landed in Jeddah from Lagos.
The Air Peace flight took off from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, via the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano on Sunday night, Nov. 12, and arrived in Saudi Arabia’s major city, Jeddah, Monday November 13.
However, on the plane’s landing, the Saudi Arabian authorities announced that all the passengers’ visas were cancelled and they should return to Nigeria.
Tinubu had recently embarked on a couple of trips to Saudi Arabia, with the Nigerian government assuring that all the creases in the relationship between both countries had been ironed out.
A source told Vanguard that all the passengers and the airline personnel were shocked at the cancellation of the visas because during check the passengers went through the Advanced Passengers Pre-Screening System, APPS, which was also monitored by the Saudi Arabia authorities before the flight left Nigeria.
The source wondered whether what happened was a strategy to discourage the airline from operating to the destination because since it started the operation it has been recording a high load factor and even the flight expected to leave on Tuesday to Jeddah was already fully booked.
When the Nigerian embassy waded in, Saudi authorities were said to have reduced the number of passengers that would be returned from 264 to 170.
Saudi Air has been operating directly from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia.
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, its operations assisted the country’s foreign exchange profile.
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.
According to the source, “The airline was exonerated in all this as the 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.
“Those deported were 177 passengers and Air Peace has already left with them back to Nigeria. They are on their way to Nigeria now.”