FAirlines are estimated to lose about N50bn or more in revenue to the cancellation of the Hajj exercise with attendant disruption to their cash flow for the year.
When on March 12, 2020, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) organised a bid exercise for intending air operators for the 2020 Hajj, little did the airlines as well as the bid organiser had any inkling it would be an exercise in futility.
Last week, the Saudi Arabian authority announced the restriction of 2020 Hajj to only pilgrims resident in the Kingdom while barring international pilgrims from the exercise.
The measure was in response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) ravaging the world.
While stakeholders accept the decision of the Saudi Arabian authority as the wish of God, for the airline operators, it was a huge setback.
Following the pandemic and the attendant reduction of flights, the aviation industry has been shut down since March 27 as a measure of containing the virus with airlines grounding their aircraft used mostly for domestic operations.
But the cancellation of the pilgrimage in 2020 worsened the woes of airline operators.
Daily Trust reports that Max Air, Med-View and SkyPower were the three Nigerian carriers that participated in the 2019 Hajj exercise.
However, during the March bidding to select air carriers for the 2020 Hajj, no fewer than seven airlines indicated interest in participating in the airlift at the bid opening conducted by the NAHCON.
They included Arik, Med-View Airline, Max Air, Azman Air and Sky Power as well as two Saudi Airlines – FlyNas and Sky Prime.
The fares proposed by airlines range from $1400 to $1900. Last year, the airlines charged between $1,650 to $1,700 per passenger.
The fare for the South is usually slightly higher than the one for the pilgrims from the Northern part of the country because of the proximity to Saudi Arabia.
It would be recalled that about 65,000 pilgrims participated in the 2019 Hajj with the total package costing over N1.5m.
