The airlift of Nigerian pilgrims back to Nigeria is expected to commence on Tuesday the 4th of this month.
This was announced by Engineer Mohammed Goni Sanda the head of aviation matters of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, at the post Arafah meeting, Sunday evening in Makkah.
He said, the criteria of first in, first out would strictly be applied in the evacuation of the pilgrims back to Nigeria after the Hajj exercise.
Engineer Goni Sanda further stated that the Saudi authorities have a policy that in the first two weeks, the air carriers would not operate maximally due to volume of traffic and the large number of aircrafts involved in the evacuation exercise of pilgrims from different continents and countries of the world and virtually all taking off from one single Airport which is the King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah.
He said though Nigerian carriers have been given directive to airlift pilgrims from Madinah International Airport, this was a talk order, because about ninety-eight percent of Nigerian pilgrims have already visited Madinah, and for them to be transported again to Madinah is herculean as handling their luggage alone would be a big task.
He assured that by Monday discussions with the authorities concerned would have been concluded for a review of the directive.
On Zamzam, Engineer Goni said most of it have already been taken to Nigeria only waiting for collection by pilgrims at their various arrival and departure points.
