TheCable

Air Peace has absolved the company of blame after Saudi Arabia said it cancelled the visas of 264 passengers airlifted by the company from Nigeria because of incorrect information.

On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia said the passengers provided incorrect information to obtain a category of visa that doesn’t apply to them.

Saudi Arabia cancelled the visas of 177 passengers, allowing 87 to remain in the country after they landed in Jeddah on Monday — a flight that started from Kano on Sunday.

In a statement defending the visa cancellation, Saudi embassy said the passengers did not meet the Arab nation’s rules and regulations.

However, hours after Saudi’s clarification, Air Peace, in a statement signed by Oluwatoyin Olajide, the airline’s chief operating officer, said that the visa cancellation was not the fault of the company.

SAUDI AUTHORITIES CONFIRMED VISA BEFORE TAKEOFF

Air Peace said Saudi Arabia’s ministry of foreign affairs provided a visa confirmation platform used to verify the passengers’ visas before they were allowed to check in for the flight.

“The visas of all passengers on the said flight to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia were checked and verified through the requisite procedures and were vetted to be valid before departure,” Air Peace said.

“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 used this system to determine the admissibility or otherwise of each passenger on that flight.”

PASSENGERS’ NAMES WERE SENT BEFORE DEPARTURE  

Air Peace said Saudi Arabia’s national travel security centre was sent the names of the passengers before the company’s flight took off from Nigeria.

The airline said the details of the passengers were sent to Saudi authorities to determine their admissibility, but Air Peace was not issued any notice of cancellation.

“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,” the airline said.

“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.”

Air Peace said it strictly followed the profiling procedures stipulated by Saudi authorities, so the company was shocked that upon arrival in Jeddah, the visas of its passengers were cancelled without any cogent explanation till the time the airline wrote the statement.

The company said the immigration officers of Saudi Arabia were equally surprised that the valid visas were cancelled the way it was done.

“While we empathize 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 explanation for the sudden and unexpected cancellation of the visas,” the airline said.

Air Peace said it has continued to cooperate with the authorities to unravel the issues surrounding the visa cancellation.