25 jets planned for this year's haj pilgrimage
25 jets planned for this year's haj pilgrimage
JAKARTA (JP): The country's flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will
deploy 25 jets to transport some 240,000 Moslems going on
pilgrimage to Mecca this year, Minister of Transportation
Haryanto Dhanutirto says.
Haryanto told Commission V of the House of Representatives
yesterday that the jets will comprise 15 Boeing B747s, six MD-11s
and four DC-10s.
"Like last year, we will just operate aircraft which were
manufactured after 1980," he told the commission, which deals
with transportation, public housing and works, tourism, post and
telecommunications.
He said that Garuda will lease the jets from foreign airlines,
including Kuwait Airways and Tower Air of the United States.
A Boeing-747 aircraft, after a modification in seat
configuration, usually has a capacity of 480 seats, an MD-11 490
seats and a DC-10 355 seats.
"Eight B-747s, six MD-11s and four DC-10s have been inspected
and are under consideration and we are looking for seven other
jets." he said.
He also said that starting this year, the Sepinggan airport in
Balikpapan of East Kalimantan will serve haj transportation,
bringing the total number of airports serving haj transportation
to five.
"As of Jan. 24, 194,116 people had registered themselves for
the pilgrimage, of whom 110,235 will depart from the Halim
Perdanakusuma airport in Jakarta, 41,334 from the Juanda airport
in Surabaya of East Java, 20,909 from the Hasanuddin airport in
Ujungpandang of South Sulawesi and 17,370 from the Polonia
airport in Medan of North Sumatra and 4,268 from the Sepinggan
airport in Balikpapan," he said, adding that departures will be
scheduled between April 6 and May 2, while the returns will be
between May 13 and June 8.
Service
The minister also said that 14 B-747 aircraft will serve 229
groups of pilgrims from the Halim Perdanakusuma airport, one B-
747 aircraft for 36 groups from the Polonia airport, five MD-11s
103 groups from the Juanda airport, four DC-10s for 66 groups
from the Hasanuddin airport and one MD-11 for 16 groups from the
Sepinggan airport.
The government estimates that 240,000 Moslems may register to
go to Mecca this year even though Saudi Arabia has set a quota of
192,000 pilgrims from Indonesia.
The government has announced that there is no maximum limit on
the number of Indonesians allowed to go on the pilgrimage. Last
year, the number of pilgrims going to Mecca increased to some
165,000 from some 123,000 pilgrims in 1993.
Last year, Garuda operated 20 jets for the pilgrimage with 355
flights. Out of the jets, 18 were leased from foreign firms,
comprising of Air France, World Airways of Canada, Qantas from
Australia, Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines, while the
other two were owned by Garuda. (icn)