Ministry of Hajj and Umrah completes dispatch of first wave from Padang Embarkation

Padang (ANTARA) - The West Sumatra Regional Office (Kanwil) of the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah (Kemenhaj) has completed the dispatch of the first wave of prospective Hajj pilgrims for the 1447 Hijriah Hajj season. “The dispatch of the prospective Hajj pilgrims from flight group 11 from Minangkabau International Airport to Madinah also marks the end of the first wave,” said the Head of the West Sumatra Kemenhaj Regional Office, M. Rifki, in Padang on Wednesday. This means that to date, the Padang Hajj Embarkation has dispatched 4,303 prospective Hajj pilgrims to the Holy Land. Meanwhile, the second wave will be dispatched on Thursday (7/5/2026) in the early hours at 03:40 WIB to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. “Insya Allah, on Thursday in the early hours, we will begin dispatching the second wave of prospective Hajj pilgrims,” he said. Meanwhile, Rusdi Saad, the Manager of Garuda Indonesia Station in Padang, stated that the heavy rain lashing Padang did not hinder the dispatch process for the Hajj pilgrims of batch 11 from Padang Embarkation. The flight proceeded according to schedule, even earlier than the designated time. “In line with the instructions from Director of Operations Captain Dani Haikal, safety aspects are the top priority, whether in clear weather or rain,” he said. Garuda Indonesia has prepared several mitigation measures to anticipate various field conditions such as rain, starting from the use of canopy-covered boarding stairs to accelerating the boarding process. “We started boarding 30 minutes earlier. We also added staff inside the aircraft to assist with arranging pilgrims’ luggage and coordinated with Angkasa Pura, including providing two follow-me vehicles,” he added.