Saudi Arabian Airlines has achieved high rates of on-time performance in its return flights for Haj pilgrims this year as the rate reached 93.80 percent, 8.71 percent more than that of 2012, according to Abdullah Al-Ajhar, executive vice president for public relations.

He said the number of delayed Haj flights was brought down this year by 6.19 percent to 49 from a total of 791 outgoing flights. He said the national carrier transported 837,222 Haj pilgrims this year on inbound and outbound flights.

Al-Ajhar emphasized Saudia’s efforts to provide excellent services to the guests of God to make their spiritual journey more comfortable. “We transport Haj pilgrims from more than 100 destinations around the world.”

Speaking about the airline’s huge Haj operation, the Saudia official said it had operated 1,569 flights solely to transport pilgrims. “Despite these large number of flights, the delays were very minimal,” he pointed out. Saudia’s on-time performance was equal to that of major international airlines, he added.

Al-Ajhar said Saudia had made early preparations to make this year’s Haj operation a resounding success. “This included deployment of a large number of employees in major stations,” he said, adding that top officials were present at airports to supervise the handling of Haj flights.