Air India plans to operate 230 special Haj flights to Jeddah

As many as 71,684 pilgrims will perform the religious obligation this year under the government scheme and the same number under the private scheme.

Biman Bangladesh flight BG 1011 left Dhaka’s Shahjalal worldwide Airport in the morning with 419 passengers.

Pre-Hajj operation will continue till 16th of next month.

The return flights will start on September 27, with the first flight taking off from Jeddah, and the last flight is scheduled for October 28, he added. Of them, 10,000 will perform hajj under government arrangement and the rest under private management, said officials at the religious affairs ministry. Biman Bangladesh Airlines will carry 51 thousands pilgrims.

The pilgrims were selected through an online registration system launched by the ministry this year. “However, we hope the quota of Pakistani pilgrims will go back to normal, that is 180,000, from next year”.

Flights carrying pilgrims will take off from Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Multan, Rahimyaar Khan and Sukkur, he said.

Upon the pilgrims’ demand, the parliamentary standing committee on the religious affairs ministry in May decided to talk to the Saudi authorities to settle the issue. The pilgrims have already been intimated about their filight schedules on their given addresses.