Ministry Of Transportation Calls Time For First Phase Hajj Flight Capai 86.99 Percent

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (Ditjen Hubud) of the Ministry of Transportation noted that the achievement of the timeliness of flights (OTP) in the first phase of Hajj transportation in 2024 reached 86.99 percent.

Director General of Air Transportation of the Ministry of Transportation M Kristi Endah Murni said the flights were from two airlines, namely Garuda Indonesia and Saudi Arabia Airlines.

"To date, on time performance (OTP) from the two airlines has reached 86.99 percent, with details of Garuda Indonesia 78.68 percent and Saudi Arabia Airlines 96.51," Kristi said as quoted by ANTARA, Sunday, June 2.

Kristi said, during the period May 12-30, 144,961 pilgrims for Hajj candidates had been dispatched or 67.1 percent of the total pilgrims for this year's Hajj, namely 216,065 according to data from the Ministry of Religion.

"All prospective pilgrims are divided into 554 flying groups (clusters), until May 30 yesterday the percentage of the departing group was 66.6 percent," explained Kristi.

During the first phase of departure, the Directorate General of Hubud noted that there were 48 delays, namely Garuda Indonesia with a total of 42 delays and Saudi Arabia Airlines with a total of 6 delays.

He said he had held a joint meeting with Garuda Indonesia regarding the number of delays in this first phase, which was due to technical and operational factors.

"For this incident, Garuda Indonesia has mitigated by flying prospective pilgrims using its wide body aircraft," Kristi explained.

Kristi also asked the two airlines serving Hajj flights to be committed and responsible for providing the best Hajj services and immediately mitigating if there are obstacles in the field.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation Adita Irawati said that a coordination meeting had been held chaired by the Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi and attended by all transportation stakeholders and stakeholders of Hajj flights such as the Director General of Hajj and Umrah Organization of the Ministry of Religion, along with all other related parties.

"We have held a coordination meeting to evaluate the implementation of this first phase of the Hajj flight. For this reason, it is necessary to increase supervision and ensure that the smooth running of the Hajj flight in 1445 H/2024 AD runs smoothly, safely, safely and comfortably," said Adita.

Furthermore, Adita said, the Ministry of Transportation will continue to closely oversee Hajj flights until the return of 2024.

"Our job is to ensure that the safety and security of the pilgrims remains a top priority, so that obstacles in the first phase do not happen again in the second phase," said Adita.

Previously, the President Director of Garuda Indonesia, Irfan Setiaputra, apologized to all pilgrims who were affected by flight delays.

"We apologize for the inconvenience of prospective pilgrims in several departure groups who experienced flight delays, as well as to the Hajj flight authorities who continue to work optimally in ensuring the smooth running of Hajj services for the people of Indonesia," said Irfan in a statement in Jakarta, Monday (27/5/2024).

Irfan said that the national airline Garuda Indonesia continues to intensify various mitigation measures in optimizing the smooth running of hajj flights after the delay in the departure schedule for several flight groups, following the arrangement of fleet safety procedures to ensure the focus of flight safety can be maintained.

He did not deny that there were several crucial records of flight delays on the departure of a number of groups from several embarkations, one of which was due to a number of flight schedule adjustments in the departure group from the Makassar embarkation some time ago.

"We ensure that the management and all teams in charge continue to work hard to make every effort to improve this, including by optimizing the readiness of the Hajj flight fleet through the use of aircraft currently operated for regular flights," said Irfan.