Air Peace airlines has disagreed with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia on reasons stated for the deportation of 177 out of the 264 Jeddah-bound passengers, saying travel details of the passengers were shared with the Kingdom’s authority before they were airlifted out of Nigeria.
LEADERSHIP reports that the government of Saudi-Arabia, on Monday, 12th November, 2023, cancelled all visa of Nigerians onboard the Air Peace aircraft to Jeddah.
Upon the intervention of the Nigerian embassy, 87 passengers were allowed entry while 177 were deported to Nigeria.
Consequently, the Royal Embassy of Saudi- Arabia in Abuja, on Wednesday, said the visas of the Air Peace passengers were cancelled because they did not fulfil the entry conditions of the Arab country.
However, in a press statement by the chief operating officer, Air Peace Limited, Oluwatoyin Olajide, 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.
She stated further that 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’s visa before they were allowed to check-in for the flight.
“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 Arabia Authorities, if not, no passengers 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 use 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.”
Olajide, however, stated that immigration officers of Saudi Arabia were equally surprised that Valid Visas were cancelled the way it was done.
She also reiterated Air Peace’s resolve to continue to cooperate with relevant authorities in order to unravel the issues surrounding the Visa cancellation.
“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 Valid Visas were cancelled the way it was done. While we empathise with the affected passengers for this development and assure them of our full compliance with the provisions guiding international travels, we wish to state that up till this moment, the Saudi Arabian authorities have not provided any explanations for the sudden and unexpected cancellation of the Visas.
“Air Peace has continued to cooperate with the Authorities to unravel the issues surrounding the Visa cancellation,” she stated in the statement.
