MUMBAI, 29 April 2008 — The Uttar Pradesh Haj Committee has complained of gross misbehavior by the staff of the national carrier Air India with pilgrims and threatened to boycott it in favor of the Saudi Arabian Airlines for its approximately 35,000 Hajis for their trip to Saudi Arabia this year.
In identical letters to the Central Haj Committee, the Air India management and the federal government, Mohammed Javed Khan, deputy secretary of the UP Haj Committee said: “The decision (to boycott) is firm and that the services of Air India would not be taken at any cost.”
Air India earns over 600 million rupees ($15 million) from ferrying Haj pilgrims to and from Saudi Arabia.
The secretary of the state Haj Committee, Laiq Ahmad, said pilgrims from Uttar Pradesh were treated shabbily even though they paid huge amounts months before the pilgrimage. He said pilgrims in the past had complained of rude behavior of the Air India staff in Mumbai and Jeddah. The carrier also deployed smaller size aircraft to fly the pilgrims, forcing them to pay for carrying Zam Zam water on the flight home. Pilgrims had also complained of poor quality food and contaminated water served aboard flights.
Jitendra Bhargava, Air India’s director public relations, brushed off the allegations and said: “It is nothing but politics by Uttar Pradesh leaders.”
