JEDDAH, 9 January 2006 — Pilgrims continued to arrive in the city by air and road yesterday.
The King Abdul Aziz Airport witnessed the arrival of many groups of pilgrims by Saudi Arabian Airlines in the South Terminal and by various international airlines at both the Haj and North terminals.
A Royal Air Maroc flight from Morocco brought pilgrims from Casablanca and other Moroccan and North African cities.
The Haj Terminal will remain open till 4 p.m. today, Mowafaq Salamah, assistant manager for Haj operations, told Arab News.
“These pilgrims drove straight to Arafat,” another Haj operation official told Arab News.
A special Haj flight from Senegal is scheduled to land at 5 a.m. and its 480 pilgrims will travel by 10 buses direct to Arafat, he added. Other pilgrims arriving yesterday at the North Terminal were mostly from the Gulf States, prominently from the UAE, Qatar and Oman.
“We are giving the arriving pilgrims a maximum chance to reach Arafat in time,” the official said, adding that those who cannot reach Arafat before sunset today cannot perform Haj.
The number of officials from various Haj departments who have been looking after pilgrim interests on arrival and until their departure to the pilgrimage center dwindled to 25 yesterday.
“We too will move from here to perform the pilgrimage and then return to facilitate the departure of pilgrims to their destinations,” Osama Al-Ghamdi said.
For UAE citizen Abdullah Abu Abdul Aziz, 32, the pilgrimage this time is “special,” as he has come with his eight-member family.
“We keep performing Haj year after year,” said another UAE citizen, Abdullah Abu Abdul Aziz, 32, who arrived with his family. Another Gulf resident who arrived with his sons is widower Abu Ahmed, 45. “We perform Haj every two or three years,” he said.
Jeddah continued to present scenes of citizens and residents heading for the pilgrimage centers.
