Indigenous carrier, Air Peace airlines, has evacuated 301 Chinese from Lagos back to China.
The evacuation flight, a Boeing 777-300 with registration 5N-BWI, took off from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos, late yesterday for Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, China.
The exercise was courtesy of the Chinese government as part of efforts to repatriate all Chinese from Nigeria.
The local carrier had earlier evacuated Israelis living in Nigeria in March and has been contacted by other countries for evacuation operations.
Spokesman of the airline, Stanley Olisa, confirmed that the flight had already landed in China, while the Regional Airport Manager, Southwest, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Victoria Shin-Aba, said the flight, “P47807, pushed back from the Echo Terminal of MMIA at 21:40hrs with 325 souls onboard- 301 Chinese evacuees and 24 crew members.”
Shin-Aba explained that all relevant government agencies, including FAAN, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and Port Health Services officials were on ground in Lagos.
Air Peace is slated to carry out more evacuation operations for other nationals living in Nigeria, as the airline and other domestic operators gear up to resume scheduled flight operations soon.
There are indications that commercial flight operations would resume early next month, as the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has started auditing airlines in preparation for scheduled passenger service.
