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)