The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) confirmed in October 2015 that it had airlifted more than 41,000 pilgrims back to Nigeria in the two weeks since return flights began, operating around 110 charter flights out of Saudi Arabia. Commissioner of Operations Alhaji Ibrahim Modibbo Saleh, briefing reporters in Makkah, said the commission had already completed the return of pilgrims from Kwara and Gombe states and was close to finishing Nasarawa's contingent, alongside a handful of other states still being processed.
The airlift was carried out under markedly different circumstances from previous years. In late September, a crush during the stoning of the devil ritual at Mina had killed thousands of pilgrims from across the world in the deadliest disaster in the history of the modern Hajj, and Nigerian pilgrims were among the dead and missing. Nigerian officials worked alongside Saudi authorities in the weeks that followed to identify victims and account for citizens who could not immediately be located, even as the broader logistics of flying tens of thousands of pilgrims home continued on schedule.
Carriers Under Pressure
The airlift relied on a handful of Nigerian-designated carriers operating widebody aircraft on charter contracts with the commission, a system that placed enormous seasonal demand on a domestic airline sector already under financial strain elsewhere in the year. NAHCON also moved to knock down reports circulating during the operation that it had suspended one of the participating carriers, insisting that no such action had been taken and that the airlift was proceeding without disruption to its schedule.
A Season Remembered for Loss
Even with the airlift itself completed without major logistical incident, the 2015 Hajj season would be remembered in Nigeria chiefly for the scale of loss at Mina, which prompted renewed scrutiny of crowd management at the pilgrimage and left NAHCON, alongside its counterparts from dozens of other countries, pressing Saudi authorities for changes intended to prevent a repeat in future years.