First batches of Indonesian haj pilgrims fly out

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.
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