K S Ramkumar/Arab News
Jeddah, Oct 31: The Haj Terminal at King Abdulaziz International Airport opened yesterday with scores of overseas flights arriving with pilgrims for the annual pilgrimage. Some flights also landed at Madinah's Prince Muhammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport.
The first to arrive at the terminal was an Air India flight with 166 pilgrims from India's northeastern city of Guwahati at 5.30 p.m., which was received by local officials and also those of the Indian diplomatic mission headed by Ambassador M.O.H. Farook.
The Haj officials gifted them translations of the Holy Qur'an, as well as books and cassettes that explain various Haj rituals. Pilgrims expressed their happiness for having got an opportunity to fulfill their life's ambition of performing Haj, which is one of the five pillars of Islam.
A flight from Jammu and Kashmir, which was scheduled to be the first to land at the terminal, was delayed and arrived in the evening. In all about 8,000 Kashmiri pilgrims will be performing Haj this year.
Fadil Shakhdad, director of operations at the Haj Terminal, told Arab News that the terminal was ready to receive all Haj flights from different parts of the world. "All measures are in place to facilitate the arrival of pilgrims and completing their immigration procedures as quickly as possible," he said.
Earlier in the day, an Air India flight with 419 pilgrims arrived at the Madinah airport from Kozhikode. The Boeing 747 flight with 171 male and 248 female pilgrims was flagged off by Kerala Minister for Haj and Local Self Governments Paloli Mohammed Kutty at 12.30 p.m., two hours behind schedule.
Kanthapuram A.P Aboobacker Musliar led the prayers at the nearby Haj House before the pilgrims left for the Kozhikode airport.
India's flag carrier is scheduled to fly 7,208 pilgrims from Kerala and the federally administered Lakshadweep and Mahe territories under the government quota selected through a draw. The Haj Committee of India (HCI) has released an additional quota of 2,000 for the state to enable more pilgrims to perform Haj. Some 295 pilgrims are coming from Lakshadweep and 51 from Mahe.
The first Haj flight operated by Saudi Arabian Airlines from New Delhi arrived at night with 240 pilgrims. Two more flights departed New Delhi at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. respectively.
In Madinah, the first to land was a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad with 300 pilgrims at 9 a.m., which was received by Indian Consul General Sayeed Ahmed Baba.
In all, nine Indian Haj flights arrived with a total of 2,600 pilgrims.
A total of 168,000 pilgrims from India will perform Haj this year. Of them 123,211 are coming through HCI and the rest through private tour operators. Air India and Saudi Arabian Airlines are transporting these pilgrims from 17 Indian cities.
On an average 12 flights will carry about 3,600 pilgrims per day till Nov. 16 from Delhi, Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Srinagar and Varanasi.
- With input from Mohammed Ashraf in Kerala.