The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Christian Pilgrim Commission, Mr. John Kennedy Opara, has charged Air Carriers for the 2011 pilgrimage to produce verifiable documents of their aircrafts.

He made this disclosure recently during a screening and interview session for Air Carriers for the 2011 Pilgrimage in Abuja. In the words of the NCPC boss, “you have to give us Aircraft documents that are verifiable” . He stressed that the Commission would be transparent in selecting the Air-Carriers by doing “a credible job”, as the best Air-Carriers would be given the opportunity to fly Nigerian pilgrims to the State of Israel and back.

He assured the Air-Carriers that the Commission would follow the key trends in global practices in arriving at the best Air-Carriers for this year’s pilgrimage.

Mr. John Kennedy Opara advised the Air-Carriers to have an open heart and accept the result of the screening exercise in good faith as there would always be another opportunity every year. According to him; “if you are not able to make it, you can try again”.

He called on the Air-Carriers to see their job as more of spiritual thing than mere business. He assured that the Commission would provide them with the enabling environment to succeed.

The NCPC helmsman informed the Air-Carriers that the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and the State of Israel would be signed before the commencement of Airlift for this year’s pilgrimage. According to him; “our greatest challenges has been the problem of BASA”. However he stated; “God willing before the commencement of Airlift this year, we will be able to resolve it so that we can fly directly from here to Israel’, he stressed.

Five prospective Air-Carriers were screened; there was opening of the bid by NCPC and the Air-Carriers were given opportunity to do their presentation.

The Airfares for this year’s pilgrimage to Israel, Rome and Greece were agreed upon by NCPC Board and the Air-Carriers.