Hajj 2024, Garuda Indonesia Flying 4,232 Candidates For First Cluster Pilgrims

JAKARTA - Garuda Indonesia has officially started implementing phase I (departure) of Hajj 1445H flights to fly pilgrims to the Holy Land. On this first day, 4,232 Hajj pilgrims from Indonesia will depart.

Thousands of these pilgrims are divided into 11 flying groups or groups from six embarkations, namely Jakarta two groups, Banjarmasin one group, Lombok one group, Solo four groups, Makassar two groups and Padang one group.

President Director of Garuda Indonesia, Irfan Setiaputra, said that the initial phase of the departure of Indonesian pilgrims was marked by the GA-7301 flight carrying 393 pilgrims from Kloter I Jakarta which had departed from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta to Medina today at 01.00 WIB.

The departure of the inaugural Hajj flight was officially released by the Indonesian Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas and the ranks and President Director of Garuda Indonesia Irfan Setiaputra.

Irfan said that the first batch of candidates for Indonesian Hajj pilgrims is planned to arrive at Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport at 07.00 LT.

"The departure of the two prospective pilgrims will be carried out through Kloter I Banjarmasin from Syamsuddin Noor International Airport at 08.40 WITA and is scheduled to arrive in Medina at 16.40 LT," he said in an official statement, Sunday, May 12.

Irfan said the momentum of Hajj flights has a special meaning for Garuda Indonesia as a national flag carrier, especially considering that Indonesia is one of the countries with the largest Muslim population in the world, to deliver prospective pilgrims to worship through safe and comfortable flight services.

"It is important for us to ensure that prospective pilgrims have experience in carrying out the seamless pilgrimage considering that the pilgrimage is a moment that has been awaited by prospective pilgrims," said Irfan.

Previously, to optimize the operational readiness of the 1445H Hajj flight, Garuda Indonesia had carried out various initiatives through the readiness of service, operational aspects, to safety management, to ensure the readiness of flight services for prospective pilgrims to run optimally.

One of them is through the Aircraft Health Program, namely aircraft restructuring through various comprehensive and layered maintenance procedures in the fleet that will serve Hajj flights.

In this year's Hajj flight operations, Garuda will also focus on presenting elderly Hajj flights, including by optimizing comfort support equipment during flights, such as providing blankets and emergency equipment, optimizing boarding management, and preparing 30 wheelchairs in each embarkation.

In addition, during the Hajj season 1445H/2024M, Garuda Indonesia increased the number of ground officers to 10 percent of the number of officers in the previous year.

As for the Hajj season 1445H, Garuda Indonesia will carry a total of 109,072 prospective pilgrims divided into 292 groups. The prospective pilgrims will depart from nine embarkations, namely Banda Aceh, Medan, Padang, Jakarta-Pondok Gede, Solo, Banjarmasin, Balikpapan, Makassar, and Lombok.