JEDDAH, 15 March 2005 — Pakistan International Airlines’ Haj operation has been successful, according to Lt. Col. (Retd.) Talat Umar, general manager of PIA in Saudi Arabia.
The post-Haj period started on Jan. 25 and ended on Feb. 24, he said while giving details of PIA’s post-Haj operation. PIA operated 372 special Haj flights carrying 1,30,128 pilgrims. In addition, it carried 10,790 pilgrims through its 52 scheduled flights, he said.
“This was not an easy task to fulfill on time. The entire Haj operation took 30 days to finish by operating 14 flights a day, a record number of pilgrims handled in a short period despite numerous odds and PIA maintained 98.9% regularity,” said Talat. Entire travel planning of the pilgrims was done by PIA. Around 146,447 pilgrims traveled by PIA this year, which itself is a record. “We had the best team operating here, and not a single complaint was made.
“To finish the operation successfully, we hired 500 staff from Pakistan,” he added. He suggested “if the return travel starts one day after Haj it will be beneficial for all pilgrims.”
Regarding PIA’s direct access to Madinah, Talat said: “We have provided Saudi Airlines four stations to operate in Pakistan. But we were given only three stations in Saudi Arabia — Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam — and we would like to have Madinah as the fourth station. If we start operations from Madinah it will be to our advantage. We can reduce the rush at Jeddah airport and the travel of passengers will be made easy.”
Asked how he planned to avoid last minute chaos during Umrah season, he said, “We are planning to issue confirm return tickets from Pakistan itself to avaoid chaos and confusion here in Jeddah.”
Manzoorul Hassan, PIA’s station manager in Jeddah also said, “This year’s Haj operation was very successful. It is considered one of the best Haj operations ever. There was no change in flight schedules. It was all made possible with the full support of the Saudi government, airport authorities and the staff of PIA.”
