First batches of Indonesian haj pilgrims fly out

JAKARTA (JP): The first batches of Indonesian haj pilgrims left almost simultaneously from six airports on Monday morning to Saudi Arabia on board Garuda Indonesia and Saudi Airlines aircraft.

In all, some 182,000 Indonesians will have departed by March 7 on 435 flights in a massive government-led operation.

The government has designated seven airports as embarkation points: Surakarta's Adisumarno; Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta; Surabaya's Juanda; Makassar's Hasanuddin; Medan's Polonia; Balikpapan's Sepinggan; and Blang Bintang in Banda Aceh.

This is the first time that the government has appointed Banda Aceh's airport as a haj departure point. Some 3,375 people have registered to fly out of the restive province for the pilgrimage, with the first flight leaving on Feb. 20.

Minister of Religious Affairs Tolchah Hasan, who saw off the first pilgrims leaving from Surabaya, said he expected the haj operation would proceed smoothly this year.

Commenting on the delayed departure of many Saudi Airlines' flights last year, he said, "The airline has deployed additional planes this year."

Minister of Transportation Agum Gumelar and director general for the guidance of the Islamic community and haj affairs Mubarok gave an official send off to the first pilgrims from Jakarta on board a Saudi Airlines plane.

Agum said the cooperation with Saudi Airlines to fly Indonesian pilgrims, now in its second year, would likely be retained next year.

But he did not rule out the involvement of other airlines, saying that the state-owned carrier Merpati Nusantara airlines could be included in the future.

Before 1999, Garuda Indonesia held a lucrative monopoly to transport Indonesian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.

Mubarok said Saudi Airlines would fly the 89 batches leaving from Surabaya and about a third of the 105 batches from Jakarta.

Tolchah said the government would not bar Indonesians from using their ordinary green passports, as against the specially government-issued brown passports, to go on the haj pilgrimage.

Last year, many Indonesians trying to leave with green passports were prevented from doing so by immigration officers. (01)