With Haj approaching, pilgrims around the globe are making the necessary preparations for flights to Saudi Arabia, while international airlines are readying special Haj flights.

Pre-Haj flight operations are from Sept. 9 to Oct. 9 from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad while the post-Haj session is scheduled from Oct. 19 until Nov.18, according to Akbar Hussain Rajput, manager at Pakistan International Airline (PIA) in Riyadh.

Rajput said: “We are using two types of aircraft with capacity of 503 and 329 passengers, respectively. We would have 214 flights during this Haj session. PIA has arranged up to 400 scouts to assist pilgrims at different airports in Pakistan as well as in Jeddah.”

This year, at least 47,000 Pakistanis will perform Haj under the government quota while more than 23,000 pilgrims will perform Haj under private tour operators’ quota.

Chokchai Panyayong, executive officer for commercial operations at Thai Airways International, said: “We are prepared to arrange special flights for Thai Muslims with the first flight departing from Narathiwat Airport to Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport on Sept. 7.”

He added that Thai Airways is organizing nine round-trip special flights from Sept. 7 to Oct. 30, with seven flights departing from Hat Yai International Airport and two from Narathiwat Airport for Jeddah.

Thai Airways expects approximately 2,655 passengers to use its services during Haj, he said.

An Air India official in Riyadh said the airline will operate Haj flights from Sept. 7 at Mangalore International Airport. The departure of pilgrims from Saudi Arabia will start on Oct. 20-24. It is expected that each day 220 passengers will fly from Mangalore.

Shahid Fareed, manager at Garuda Indonesia, said: “We are ready to fly 12 aircraft to ferry 90,108 Indonesian pilgrims in 233 groups. Garuda will start its flights from Sept. 10.”

Garuda will allow each Indonesian Haj pilgrim to carry up to 32 kg luggage, 7 kg hand carriage and 5 liters of Zamzam water. Saudi Arabia this year reduced the number of pilgrims by about 20 percent because of ongoing expansion work at the Grand Mosque in Makkah.

The government also appealed to the elderly and those with health problems to postpone their plans to perform Haj this year due to the deadly coronavirus disease in the Kingdom.