Virgin Nigeria Fined $500,000
Isn't it nice how some traditional rulers reward Virgin Nigeria for providing the only air link from Sokoto to the outside world ?!
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Virgin Nigeria, one of the five official airline carriers for this year’s Hajj exercise,
has been slammed a sum of $500, 000 (about N65million) fine for breaching the contractul agreement it entered
with the Nigerian Hajj officials for the airlift of pilgrims.
Also fined is Meridien Airline which would pay a fine of $100, 000 (about
N13million) for the same offence.
The Amirul Hajj and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar made this
revelation while addressing Ogun state pilgrims at their Ajiyad residence in
Makkah yesterday.
Both airlines failed to airlift their pilgrims most of whom were from Ogun,
Lagos, Zamfara, Borno, Edo and Oyo states, thereby losing their slots with the
Saudi airline officials and rendering the pilgrims stranded.
Virgin and Meridien missed five and one slots respectively at the Jeddah
Airport. A clause in the contractual agreement reached by all the airline
carriers and the Nigerian Hajj officials stipulated that the violation of each
slot would attract a $100, 000 sanction.
The Sultan, who was also at Borno and Edo pilgrims’ residences said: “We have
told them that for each day missed, they are going to pay $100, 000. So by the
time we conclude this operation, they (Virgin) would end up paying $500, 000
because we are going to invoke this clause to ensure they pay the money for
keeping people here.
“We have done same to the Meridien Air because they also missed one day. We are
going to fine them $100, 000 to make sure they do the right thing for our
pilgrims,” he added.
The Sultan noted that the measure was taken in order to call the erring airlines
to order as well as guard against future breach of the contract by others.
He enjoined the pilgrims to exercise more patience as all efforts are in top
gear to evacuate them back into the country, stressing that they must also
co-operate with the officials of the Presidential Committee on Hajj (PCH)
towards ensuring a successful return airlift operation.
He maintained that he would not fold his arms and see the pilgrims suffer
“because we’ll all be questioned by the Almighty Allah”, adding that he would
not leave the Holyland until their problem is solved.
The Sultan later informed the pilgrims that sequel to the stringent measure,
Virgin has commenced the airlift of some of the pilgrims on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, as the homebound operation entered its sixth day yesterday, a total
of 10, 482 Nigerian pilgrims have been airlifted. A flight schedule released by
the PCH officials revealed that the pilgrims were airlifted in 27
flights.
Source: Dailytrust.com - Newspapers Online