On Sunday, November 12, while President Bola Tinubu was still in Saudi Arabia, the aviation sector woke to the news that the Saudi government had cancelled visas earlier granted 177 Nigerians out of 264 passengers that flew with Air Peace to Jeddah, ordering them to return to Nigeria.

At the time of the incident, no explanation was given by the Saudi government but by Wednesday, November 15, the Saudi Embassy in Abuja responded that the reason for the cancellation was that the affected persons did not fulfill the entry conditions in accordance with applicable rules of the Kingdom, a claim which Air Peace refutes.

Saudi’s response

The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in a statement said the 177 individuals whose visas were canceled submitted incorrect information to obtain a category of visa that did not apply to them and which was discovered upon their arrival.

“The passengers whom were denied entry and subsequently deported to their initial destinations, didn’t fulfill the entry conditions and requirements in accordance with the applicable rules and regulations of the Kingdom, as they submitted incorrect information to obtain a category of visa that doesn’t apply to them, which was discovered upon their arrival.

Furthermore, all passengers should review all the documents to determine their conformity with the conditions prior to departing from their countries to the Kingdom. This procedure was not limited to Nigerian citizens only, but rather to citizens of other countries,” the Saudi Embassy said.

Air Peace replies

But the Chief Operating Officer of Air Peace, Toyin Olajide, refuted the Saudi explanation, insisting that Air Peace, as a scheduled flight operator with international operations experience, understands and complies with established protocols governing international flight operations and is not culpable of any infraction in this respect.

She explained that the said flight was a scheduled flight and not a chartered/Umrah/Hajj or any special flight which means that they are allowed to airlift all categories of passengers with different types of visas as long as their visas are valid and approved by the Saudi authorities.

Olajide explained that contrary to the Saudi government’s explanation, the visas of all passengers on the said flight to Jeddah were checked and verified through the requisite procedures and were vetted to be valid before departure.

“The visas were verified using the visa confirmation platform provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Saudi Arabia which confirmed the validity of each passenger visa before passengers were allowed to check-in for the flight. All the visas of the 264 passengers were duly verified, confirmed, and accepted as authentic for the trip through the visa portal provided by the Saudi authorities, if not, no passenger would have been able to depart from Nigeria. This is just one of two steps required before a passenger is accepted on the flight to Saudi Arabia.

“The next step is the use of the Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS). We equally used this system to determine the admissibility or otherwise of each passenger on that flight. The APIS was live between Air Peace’s reservation system and the Saudi Arabia National Travel Security Center carrier portal to transmit passenger details prior to departure, to the Saudi authorities in order to further determine the admissibility or otherwise of the passengers. No Notice of Cancellation or any form of denial from the Saudi authorities was received against any of these passengers despite the live transmission of their details.

“Furthermore, the passenger manifest containing the names of all passengers on board the flight was sent ahead to the Saudi Arabia National Travel Security Center carrier portal before the flight departure, yet no Notice of Visa Cancellation was received against any of these passengers. We would like to reiterate that Air Peace strictly followed the profiling procedures stipulated by the Saudi Arabian authorities and we are still shocked that upon arrival in Jeddah, the visas of our passengers were cancelled without any cogent explanation even till now. The immigration officers of Saudi Arabia were equally surprised that the valid visas were cancelled the way it was done,” she said.

Experts give verdict

This is not the first time Nigerian airlines would be at the receiving end of diplomatic disputes which aviation experts describe as aeropolitics. In November 22, 2022, Air Peace was forced to suspend its flights to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) citing non-issuance of visas to Nigerian travelers.

Aviation expert, Amos Akpan, told Daily Sun that the reason Saudi Arabian government gave for cancelling the visas of 177 Nigerians was not tenable and that in this case, reciprocity would not be the solution.

He said it was unfortunate that not only Nigerian airlines but Nigerian passengers have to bear the brunt in these sort of situations.

In explaining why reciprocity would not be the solution, he said that more Nigerians travel to countries like Saudi Arabia than Saudi Arabians come into Nigeria, hence, there is an imbalance of power in the sense that it is the Nigerian traveler that would bear the brunt of high cost of fares if the Federal Government reciprocates what the Saudi government did.

“UAE refuses visas to Nigerians and it caused Air Peace to shut down its flights on the route. South Africa delays/limits issuance of visas to Nigerians and this caused Air Peace to shut down flights on the route, but now reviewed to operate sparse frequencies. The United Kingdom gives excuses that slots are not available for Air Peace at Heathrow airport. Air Peace will have to choose Gatwick or wait for UK aviation authorities to sort out slots availability at Heathrow. This is called aeropolitics.

“They are flying the excuse that 177 of the passengers had e-visas for tourism and visits. That this is different from Umrah visas. Very lame excuse. All passengers on that flight went through the advanced passengers prescreening information system to get their boarding pass. This means all information about each passenger and visa status was sent into Saudi immigration system before boarding and departure from Nigeria. They did not object to or reject any before departure. They waited till Air Peace flight was cleared in and it landed. Big surprise and funny excuses. Airline carries a passenger only when the prescreening system confirms visa is valid. Simply put, this is aeropolitics.

“Unfortunately, reciprocity does not fit in this scenario. The reason is because Saudis, South Africans, British, Emiratis do not fly in and out of Nigeria in numbers that would sustain one Boeing-777 payload on a once a week flight operations in and out of Nigeria. But Nigerians would fill a B-777 daily on these routes 365 days per year. The same analogy is applicable to cargo as payload though not in same quantity/frequencies. We import a lot from these countries and we export almost zero to them. This analysis explains the dilemma of Nigerian government officials when it comes to application of the principle of reciprocity. Cote d’ivoire delayed granting Air Peace entry. UK, South Africa, UAE, and now Saudi? This is beyond coincidence.

“It’s the Nigerian travelers that gets limited when the airlines from these countries are restricted from flying this route. It’s the Nigerian travelers that pay highest fares when fewer international airlines ply our routes causing excess demand for few supply of seats because when demand is higher than supply the price increases. Their airlines will lose huge revenue for not operating flights on our route but not compared to the impact on Nigerian travelers who will pay higher fares or travel through neighboring countries,” he said.

Akpan says the solution to the issue is among others, for the government to give more support to domestic airlines and negotiate BASA agreements that would help them.

“Government should partner with airlines they chose to designate to a foreign country. For example, support with Air Peace until they get the Saudi route stabilised. Go through the diplomatic maneuver with Air Peace. Find out the financial guarantees required by Air Peace to sustain its operations on the route. Ensure strict oversight on safety, corporate governance, and customer satisfaction. Deliberately dedicate three years of support to help Air Peace develop strategies to serve Nigerians on the route. When our airline is messed up or if it fumbles on the international arena, it’s Nigeria’s image and brand that is ridiculed. This revocation of visas by Saudi government ridicules Nigeria not Air Peace.

“Government must simultaneously invest in infrastructures that would make one hub airport in Nigeria. One airport in Nigeria must have transit facilities and flight frequencies that cater for 70% of travelers in and out of the West African region. Initiate a propaganda of fly Nigerian airlines on the route they are available. Nigeria must not delude herself that other countries will help them develop their aviation. They can only exploit our market using lofty power point presentation of the gains of partnership. You are only useful if working with you helps them meet their target percentage of contribution to the GDP of their national economy from their aviation sector. What is our own desired target from our aviation sector in five, 10, 20 or 50years?

“There is no short cut. Ethiopian didn’t do shortcuts. Let’s start now with what we have at hand – Air Peace must be supported to succeed wherever our government has designated them to operate. Let the diplomatic maneuver and manipulation start. They must let them continue flying to China, UAE, Saudi, India, UK, South Africa et al,” he said.

For his part, renowned aviation security expert, Group captain John Ojikutu (rtd), told Daily Sun that the Federal Government must as a matter of urgency, designate two Nigerian airlines as flag carriers, that way, the country would be able to have an equal footing with other countries when negotiating BASA deals.

“The foreign ministry must take this matter of visa up with the Saudi Arabia Authority, while the ministry of aviation should begin to think of the designation of Nigerian airlines as flag carriers with the necessary government support as it is be national carrier. The government should designate two flag carriers in the place of a national carrier. One for regional and continental and the other intercontinental. But they must sell their shares to the public at the stock market.

“Also, Air Peace and others to be designated flag carriers must find a way of using the APPIS to profile international passengers. This is an online automated system that allows you to verify the passengers’ visa with the countries of destination embassies before he gets checked in on the airlines checking counter. Most of the foreign airlines especially the European airlines apply this system which was developed immediately after the 9/11. I knew of this during the Abdulmutalab case of December 2009,” he said. (The Sun)

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