The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) says the General Authority of Civil Aviation of Saudi Arabia (GACA) has given the greenlight to only two of five Nigerian carriers appointed to operate Hajj charter flights this year.
In a statement, NAHCON director, Alhaji Mohammadu Goni, said that while Med-View Airline (Kano) and MaxAir (Nigeria) (VM, Katsina) had been given the nod, DANA - Dornier Aviation Nigeria (DAV, Kaduna Old), TopBrass Aviation (BRL, Lagos), and Azman Air (AZM, Kano) had not.
“In fact, a delegation was send to appeal to [the] Saudi Arabian Authority to allow the three carriers to fly their route but they insisted that those airlines must acquire designation status because they only applied as charter flights,“ he told Nigeria's Daily Trust newspaper.
As recently reported, Med-View is leasing a B747-400 from Air Atlanta Icelandic (CC, Reykjavik Keflavik) to cover its flights to Jeddah International and Madinah while MaxAir is using its operational fleet of three B747-300s and one B747-400.
As per any Hajj agreement, Saudi Arabia has designated flynas (XY, Riyadh) to operate its charter flights to Nigeria.
