Air Peace Airline, has started direct scheduled commercial flights into Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
In a press statement by the spokesman of the airline, Stanley Olisa, the inaugural flight was operated with one of the airline’s B777s, from Kano at 23:22hrs with 231 passengers.
According to the statement, the Emir of Kano, HRH Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero, lauded the airline for always blazing the trail in Nigeria’s aviation industry.
Air Peace, however, has been operating charter flights to Saudi Arabia, airlifting Muslim pilgrims. But, the inaugural flight officially kicked off its scheduled operations into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Speaking during the inaugural flight operations, the Chairman of Air Peace, Dr Allen Onyema, described the entry into Jeddah as another milestone recorded in the annals of Nigeria’s aviation history.
He, however, noted that Jeddah is the airline’s sixth international destination in just nine years of launching commercial flight operations.
“This is huge, not just for Air Peace but for Nigeria. We are undoubtedly exemplifying our ambition of connecting Nigeria to the world with world-class flight services. Air Peace is on a mission to easing the air travel burden for Nigerians and plugging the connectivity gaps that have hitherto existed.
We are happy to be serving as a means of solidifying socio-economic ties between Nigeria and other countries of the world”.
Onyema said Nigeria and Saudi Arabia have co-existed smoothly, with religious tourism being a key driver of this relationship and stressed that with the launch of scheduled nonstop flights to Jeddah, the airline hopes to further deepen the bilateral ties between both countries, boost both economies and advance mutual development.
“The Saudi Arabian airspace is not new to us, We have operated numerous Hajj flights to the country. Thus, we are very familiar with the terrain. Our Hajj operations this year were massive. Now, we are flying to Saudi Arabia not as a charter flight but as a regular scheduled operation.
In his remarks, the Emir congratulated Air Peace for the Jeddah launch and lauded the airline for always blazing the trail in Nigeria’s aviation industry. He further commended Onyema for the impact he is creating in Nigeria through Air Peace.
