With timely arrival of Hujjaj at Jeddah Hajj Terminal, PIA's Post Hajj operation has become smooth and its aircrafts are leaving as per expected time of departure (ETD) to arrive at Pakistan as per schedule. Since November 4, some 95 percent of post-Hajj flights have departed from Jeddah to Pakistan as per schedule, announced by the airline.
While briefing media persons at PIA Jeddah Office on Monday, PIA's spokesman Syed Sultan Hasan informed that PIA's flights were now leaving as per ETD and even a flight PK-3012 was departed 10 minutes before time. PIA's Hajj flight, bound for Karachi, was departed at 5:35 am on Monday instead of its schedule departure time of 5:45 am. This was made possible only because of timely arrival of Hujjaj at Jeddah Hajj Terminal and efforts were made by the PIA staff deputed at terminal.
The reason for initial days' delay of flights was due to late reporting of Hujjaj at Jeddah Hajj Terminal and now when the congestion had minimised, Hujjaj were reaching on time, resulting in timely departure of flights to their destinations, he added. "In the initial days, not only PIA but flights of all airlines operating from Jeddah were delayed owing to late arrival of Hujjaj at Jeddah Hajj Terminal. From the Jeddah Hajj Terminal 60 different airlines are operating with average 102 flights daily handling over 100,000 passengers simultaneously," he informed.
On seventh day of the post-Hajj operation, on Monday, the flights from Jeddah to Lahore, Karachi and Quetta were departed according to the ETD for their respective destinations, while other several airlines were delayed. According to Saudi Aviation Authority's statistics, PIA's delay time is less than other airlines. During the initial four days of post-Hajj operation, two of the African Airlines- Kabo Air and Air Algeria were delayed by two to 15 hours.
The Shaheen Air of Pakistan, which is operating four flights daily, was behind schedule by 12 hours. The PIA is operating maximum flights from Jeddah Hajj Terminal as it is operating 10 Hajj flights in a day with an average delay of three hours, followed by Garauda Indonesia Airline, which is operating nine flights daily with average delay of four hours. The Turkish Airline is also operating nine flights in a day and its average delay is about one hour.
The remaining airlines are operating one to three flights daily while their average delay ranges from three to four hours, while Nas Air -the Saudi Airline- operating six flights daily, remained delayed by some average seven hours. Spokesman informed that PIA was operating 13 flights daily including 10 Hajj flights and two-three scheduled flights from the Jeddah Hajj Terminal brining back Hujjaj to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia, while PIA post-Hajj operation that started from October 31 will end on November 29, operating 196 flights during the month flying back home over 96,000 Hujjaj.
So far the PIA has operated 46 flights from the Jeddah Hajj Terminal with over 20,000 Hujjaj on board. The post-Hajj operation has entered in the seventh day and so far some 800 flights of 60 airlines have departed for their destinations. Syed Sultan Hasan informed that last night a bus carrying some 50 Hujjaj for PIA was missed and not reached at Jeddah Hajj Terminal as per time however PIA's staff made efforts to trace the bus and ensured timely departure of flight as per ETD.
He said PIA's top management has asked for all possible measurers and efforts to avert any delay in flights and timely departure of Hujjaj. "Late reporting of Hujjaj at Jeddah Airport is the chief reason of delay in flights and this is not possible for any airline, operating from Jeddah Hajj Terminal, to drop a single Haji/passenger because of plenty of threats," he mentioned. In addition, PIA has injected another reserve aircraft for post-Hajj operation as its one of the planes was grounded due to bird-hit at Karachi airport.