Air India suspends Haj flights for three days

Jeddah: Hundreds of Indian pilgrims have been stranded for three days at the Haj Terminal of King Abdulaziz International Airport here due to no available seats on return flights. The Haj Terminal opened for the post-Haj operations on Dec. 12.
Among the stranded pilgrims are those bound for Kolkata who were originally scheduled to take off on Sunday. Air India officials told Arab News yesterday that they are looking into the matter.
“The problem surfaced due to the late arrival of some of the pilgrims from Makkah,” said an airline official, who did not want to be named. He said the pilgrims who were scheduled to fly at 2:30 p.m. on the first day reached the terminal 12 hours late.
According to Indian officials overseeing the arrangements in the holy cities, some pilgrims chose to offer Friday prayers at the Grand Mosque before leaving Makkah. Their arrival at the Haj Terminal was further delayed due to traffic snarls at some points.
According to Saeed Ahmad Baba, India’s consul general in Jeddah, buses were not allowed inside Makkah on Dec. 12 to pick up the pilgrims due to huge crowds attending Friday prayers. The buses reached the pilgrims’ accommodation at 2:30 p.m., instead of 11 a.m. as per schedule, resulting in a delay in transporting them to the Haj Terminal.
On the consul general’s request, Air India officials are in touch with Saudi authorities to solve the issue.
“The late arrival of these pilgrims, which resulted in flight delays that had a snowballing effect, created chaos at the airport. So Air India has suspended all return Haj flights for three days from today to clear the backlog,” said the airline’s Jeddah-based Regional Manager Deepak Anand.
17/12/08 K.S. Ramkumar /Arab News

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Foreign Dec 2008, NACIL Dec 2008