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West and Central Africa’s largest airline, Air Peace, has expanded its Asian footprints with the commencement of direct scheduled commercial flights into Jeddah, Saudi Arabia recently.

The operation was lauded by the Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero.The inaugural flight, operated with one of the airline’s B777s on Tuesday, was airborne from Kano at 23:22hrs with 231 passengers onboard.

Air Peace, before now, has been operating charter flights to Saudi Arabia, airlifting Muslim pilgrims. But this inaugural flight officially kicked off its scheduled operations into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, described the entry into Jeddah as another milestone recorded in the annals of Nigeria’s aviation history, stating that Jeddah is the airline’s sixth international destination in just nine years of launching commercial flight operations. He noted that with the entry into Jeddah, Air Peace has increased its presence on the Asian continent.

“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,” he said.

Onyema said Nigeria and Saudi Arabia have co-existed smoothly, with religious tourism being a key driver of the 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.

He added: “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.

“Air Peace is leaving no city behind, and this is beyond domestic operations. We are poised to continually create strategic connections that ease air travel and foster economic development in the markets where we operate. In line with this route expansion drive, we are also launching flight operations into London soon”.

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.