First RI haj flights leave for Jeddah

First RI haj flights leave for Jeddah

JAKARTA (JP): Seven planes, each carrying 480 passengers, left
for Jeddah from Halim Perdanakusumah airport yesterday, marking
the start of the massive operation to send some 194,000
Indonesians on this year's haj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Unlike last year, there was no formal ceremony to send off the
first flight from Jakarta, which took place 20 minutes earlier
than the scheduled 8 a.m.

In the past, minister of religious affairs, the Saudi Arabian
ambassador and the governor of Jakarta always held a ceremony
aboard the first jet to leave from here.

Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto and Director
General of Islamic and Haj of the Ministry of Religious Affairs
Ahmad Gozali, however, were present to watch the first jet take
off yesterday.

The first flights from the other four appointed airports in
Medan of North Sumatra, Ujungpandang of South Sulawesi, Surabaya
in East Java, and Balikpapan in East Kalimantan were marked with
ceremonies led by governors.

A total of 195 flights will be made from Jakarta; 35 flights
from Medan; 118 flights from Surabaya; 66 flights from
Ujungpandang; and 39 flights from Balikpapan.

The number of prospective pilgrims included in trips organized
by private haj operators reached 8,603. They will be flown over
on 17 flights.

Although the departure of the first groups of pilgrims took
place relatively smoothly, reports of glitches abounded.

According to the information center of Garuda Indonesia
airline, 18 pilgrims failed to leave from Jakarta yesterday
because they had no visas.

In Balikpapan, Antara reported, 261 of the 710 prospective
pilgrims from the first and second flights failed to leave
Sepinggan airport as schedule, all because of a lack of visas.

Officials at the local haj committee reported on Friday that
they had yet to receive the visas, despite the pilgrims'
passports being sent to Jakarta for visa processing in December.

The local committee decided to fill the open seats with
pilgrims from later scheduled flights.

The prospective pilgrims, many of whom came from small towns
in East and Central Kalimantan, demanded that the committee
accommodate them at the Balikpapan haj dormitory while they were
waiting for visas.

"We would be too embarrassed to go home because we already
said goodbye to our families," said Arbain Risyad, one of the
prospective pilgrims who failed to leave the country.

It is a tradition for the Moslem community here to send off
relatives on pilgrimage with heart-rendering ceremonies, as well
as with feasts. The often expensive tradition is one of the
reasons why the pilgrims feel too embarrassed to return home when
they fail to go as scheduled.

In Surabaya, the local evening newspaper Surabaya Post
reported that hundreds of prospective pilgrims from Bojonegoro
and Tuban regencies failed to leave on the first and second
flights because they had no visas.

The local haj committee immediately called pilgrims from
Gresik regency to fill up the 818 open seats. Even then, there
were still 30 open seats left.

The Juanda airport is scheduled to send an average of 1,636
pilgrims on four flights every day.

Ismail, the head of the local religious affairs office, said
that as of yesterday his office had received from Jakarta only
16,000 of the requested 31,619 visas for prospective pilgrims
from Surabaya.

In Ujungpandang, 127 people could not go because they had no
visas.

Director General of Islamic and Haj Affairs of the Ministry of
Religious Affairs Ahmad Gozali confirmed that problems in
departures occurred because of the lack of visas.

He said that as of yesterday his office received only 135,000
issued visas.

The Saudi Arabian embassy recently said that it processed
about 10,000 visas per day, and promised to have completed
issuing the visas before the departure of the first groups of
pilgrims.

Saudi Arabian Ambassador Abdullah Abdul Rahman Alim was not
available for comment yesterday. (01)