Air Peace evacuates 301 Chinese from Nigeria

Nigeria’s major carrier, Air Peace on Thursday evacuated 301 Chinese from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, China’s most populous, commercial city.

The evacuation which was arranged by the Chinese government took off about 10: 00 pm Nigerian time and arrived at about 1:15 pm Nigerian time on Friday.

The Nigeria carrier was also the airline that evacuated Israelis living in Nigeria in late March and has been contacted by other countries for evacuation operations.

Spokesman of the airline, Stanley Olisa confirmed the successful flight and said Air Peace on Thursday, May 28, 2020, operated its second flight to China as “we evacuated 301 Chinese nationals back to their country. The flight departed the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos at exactly 22:05hrs to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, China. Countries have been contacting us to evacuate their citizens.”

Air Peace said it deployed its Boeing 777 aircraft with the registration number 5N-BWI for the evacuation exercise.

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Victoria Shin-Aba, the Regional Airport Manager, South West, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), said the flight: P47807 pushed back from the Echo terminal of MMIA at 21:40hrs with 325 souls onboard – 301 Chinese evacuees and 24 crewmembers.

She explained that all relevant government agencies like FAAN, Nigeria Immigration Service, Port Health Services officials and others were fully on ground to success of the evacuation exercise.

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 June, as the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has started auditing airlines in preparation for scheduled passenger service.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.