Delayed Up To 47.5 Percent, Ministry Of Religion Evaluates Garuda Indonesia

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) evaluates flight services facilitated by Garuda Indonesia for pilgrims for Indonesian Hajj candidates in 2024, due to the high number of delays in the first week which reached 47.5 percent.

"In the first week, the percentage of delays in the departure of Garuda Indonesia aircraft was very high, reaching 47.5 percent," said Ministry of Religion spokesman Anna Hasbie as reported by ANTARA, Monday, May 20.

Anna revealed that her party regretted the high number of flight delays in the first week, especially by Garuda Indonesia Airlines.

He detailed, of the 80 flights on the first feed of Hajj operations, 38 of them experienced delays. In fact, there were delays that reached 3 hours 50 minutes.

"In total, the delay reaches 32 hours 24 minutes. This is certainly very unfortunate. We have given a written warning so that in the future it must be corrected," he said.

He said, Indonesia this year received a quota of 241,000 Hajj candidates, consisting of 213,320 regular Hajj candidates and 27,680 special Hajj candidates.

Regular Hajj pilgrims, he continued, were flown by two airlines, Garuda Indonesia and Saudia Airlines.

Garuda Indonesia is scheduled to dispatch 109,072 hajj candidates who are members of 294 clusters, while the remaining 260 batches were flown with Saudia Airlines.

"For Saudia Airlines, in this week there have been delays in departures of up to 18.06 percent of the total 72 flights. The total delay has reached four hours and seven minutes. I hope the delay event can continue to be suppressed," he said.

Related to this, the Director of Domestic Hajj Services at the Ministry of Religion Saiful Mujab hopes that Garuda Indonesia and Saudia Airlines will comply with their commitment and work contracts to dispatch Indonesian pilgrims according to the agreed and stipulated schedule.

According to him, the delay in departure will have an impact on the preparation of various services in Medina and Mecca, both transportation, accommodation, as well as catering.

"Flight delays also have the potential to make pilgrims more exhausted because they have waited too long," said Saiful Mujab.