No fewer than 1,627 intending pilgrims from Kaduna State have so far been transported to Saudi Arabia, the state Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board has said.
A statement by the board’s Public Relations Officer, Yunusa Abdullahi, said the intending pilgrims were airlifted by one of the assigned carriers, Max Air.
The statement said the intending pilgrims were transported in three flights, the first carrying 560, the second, 509, while the third flight left the Kaduna International Airport, on Tuesday, with 558 intending pilgrims.
“They all arrived at the King Abdul’aziz International Airport, Jeddah, in good condition of health,” the statement said.
It added that the state governor, Nasir el-Rufai, had visited the intending pilgrims twice at the Kaduna airport where he expressed satisfaction with the ongoing airlift operation.
The governor also commended the intending pilgrims for their patience in the process of their journey to the holy land.
He urged the pilgrims to focus on their spiritual obligations in the holy land and be good ambassadors of Nigeria.
Three thousand, two hundred intending pilgrims from the state are expected to perform this year’s pilgrimage.
In a related development, Med-View Airlines, on Thursday, airlifted 320 Lagos State pilgrims to Makkah from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, aboard its newly-acquired B777-200ER aircraft.
The aircraft departed the hajj/cargo terminal of the airport with the intending pilgrims at 7.00 a.m.
The religious travellers, who started boarding as early as 5.30 a.m., were done with the formalities by 6.00 a.m. before the flight took off at 7.00 a.m.
The airline, which is scheduled to airlift about 2,001 passengers from Lagos State alone, has a total of 10,000 pilgrims of the 95,000 pilgrims to airlift from four states in Nigeria and two neighbouring countries.
Apart from Lagos pilgrims, the airline will also be airlifting pilgrims from Kaduna, Maiduguri, Ilorin, as well as Guinea Bissau and Niger Republic, according to the airline’s management.
The Executive Director, Business Development of Med-View, Alhaji Isiaq Na’allah, told journalists before the takeoff of the flight at the airport on Thursday that the airline would be transporting its pilgrims on seven trips.
