Medview Begins Airlift of Pilgrims to Holy Land
- Total of 95,000 Nigerian Pilgrims to be airlifted
Chinedu Eze
Nigeria’s major operator, Medview Airline in the early hours of yesterday, airlifted 320 Lagos State pilgrims to Mecca from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos
The pilgrims were taken to the Holy Land in Saudi Arabia from the Hajj/Cargo Terminal of the Lagos airport with the airline’s newly acquired Boeing B777-200ER.
A statement from the airline indicated that it is scheduled to airlift no fewer than 2001 passengers from Lagos alone and has a total of 10,000 pilgrims out of the 95,0000 Nigerian pilgrims billed to go to the Holy Land of Mecca this year.
Medview said apart from Lagos pilgrims, the airline would also be airlifting pilgrims from Kaduna, Maiduguri, Ilorin as well as pilgrims from Guinea Bissau and Niger Republic. Executive Director, Business Development, Alhaji Isiaq Na’allah who spoke to reporters just before the take-off of the flight, said Med-view would be airlifting its pilgrims on seven trips.
Na’allah said, “We give praise to the Almighty Allah for giving us the strength to start our airlift. This is the first flight we are doing this year and we are hoping to do about 10,000 pilgrims. We are airlifting our pilgrims from Lagos, Kaduna, Maiduguri and Ilorin.”
“Obviously, it’s challenging if you look at the number of passengers we use to carry in such a short period, it is challenging and so you need a very high capacity aircraft. This is why we have brought this aircraft; a triple seven (B777); a modern aircraft.”
The 323 passenger capacity aircraft was filled to the brim as it took off on its maiden flight from Lagos with 320 pilgrims.
To airlift the 2001 passengers from Lagos State, the airline plans to operate seven times to the Holy Land from the Lagos airport.
