Kano — Jigawa State Government, has said that dedication, selfless services, and endurance was the basic reason behind the re-engagement of the services of Meridian Airline to airlift its 3600 intending pilgrims for the 2009/2010 Hajj exercise operation year.

Speaking to Daily Champion the State Director General of the Pilgrims Welfare Agency, Mallam Usman Suleiman, disclosed that when they used the Meridian airline last year for the airlifting of their pilgrims they never faced any problems stressing that the little delay they experience was as a result of the misunderstanding between Nigeria and Sudan over air space payment.

He said when the airline started airlifting their pilgrims then, the management completely rededicated their time and services to the Jigawa until they fulfilled their contractual agreement terms by ensuring that everybody was taken to the hajj and returned as at when due, 'that is why we did not hesitate to re-engaged the services of the airline this time around because we have a good experience with them that can stand the test of time'.

On the same basis the Meridian airline, has brought in new booing 747-300m series with 518 capacity, that will start airlift of the pilgrimages Saturday, from Bangladesh, this according to the management will perform better then the last year aircraft which had the capacity of 150, and though they still bit up their time, it gave them a little stressed.

The spokesman of the Meridian airline, Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmad Karaye, told reporters that the new booing 747-300 series will take care of the four states of Kano, Kaduna, Plateau and Jigawa, which has over 10,000 intending pilgrims to be airlifted.

Karaye hinted that they have already completed their strategic plans on how to convey all the over 10,000 pilgrims allocated to them with one booing 747 and in 13-14 trips, through ensuring two trips on daily basis, going and coming back.

The Meridian airline spokesman added that they will use the last year 2008 option of concentrating in one state at a time by completely evacuating all its intending pilgrims before turning to another state stressing it had always given them leverage in their operations a head of others.

Karaye, added that all the airlines that are selected for the airliftmnet of this year intending pilgrims, have agreed to work under an understanding in terms of using kabo which is a national carrier for the issue of air space of the countries before Saudi Arabia.

This according to him, will reduce the suffering of the airlines and allow them to fully concentrate on the basic job of transporting the intending pilgrims without any hitches to the holy land unlike where every airline to himself, which always course delay in either taking the pilgrims to the holy land or returning them.