Saudia’s Zamzam gesture for Hajis

Saudi Arabian Airlines will airlift gallons of Zamzam water for Haj pilgrims ahead of their return to home country for the first time this year, said a top airline official.
“We have made arrangements to collect and distribute 200,000 gallons of Zamzam water during this Haj season,” said Essam Fouad Nour, executive general manager of the carrier at King Abdulaziz International Airport.
Haj flights that return without passengers will be used to transport Zamzam gallons.
Pilgrims will be given a gallon of water each on arrival at airports.
Nour said Zamzam gallons would be transported to 10 Saudia stations in India, three in Indonesia and one in Malaysia.
“This will minimize the volume of pilgrims’ cargo on return Haj flights and avoid the problem of late arrival of their baggage,” he explained.
The Saudia manager said the Jeddah station would handle 976 Haj flights of the national carrier this year, including scheduled flights, adding that they would carry more than 200,000 pilgrims from international stations and nearly 18,000 domestic pilgrims.
Speaking about the airline’s plan to collect baggage of pilgrims 12 hours before their return flights, Nour said: “This year we have expanded this service to 45,000 pilgrims from Bangladesh. The same service has been offered to Malaysian, Indonesian, Iranian and Indian pilgrims.”
Talal Hussain Abdul Mohsen, vice president operations at Saudi Ground Services, stressed his company’s efforts to improve customer services by recruiting highly qualified employees, providing them with intensive training and paying good salary.
He urged Saudia’s frontline staff to extend their services to passengers with a smile.
“We have to change our attitude to win the hearts of passengers,” he said.
“We can buy advanced planes and equipment and build modern airports but we cannot buy smiles and good behavior.”
He reminded Saudia staff of the need to extend the best services to pilgrims being the guests of God.