JAKARTA - Garuda Indonesia's national airline continues to maximize operational readiness ahead of the implementation of this year's Hajj flights. Where, Garuda Indonesia will depart, it is said that there are more than 109,000 prospective pilgrims.
President Director of Garuda Indonesia, Irfan Setiaputra, said that the prospective pilgrims will depart gradually to the Holy Land from May 12 to June 10, 2024.
The details are departure to Medina on May 12 to 23, 2024 and departure for Jeddah from May 24 to June 10, 2024.
"In the 1445H/2024 Hajj season, Garuda Indonesia will carry 109.072 prospective pilgrims who will be divided into 292 flying groups (clusters) and depart from nine embarkations," he said in an official statement, Wednesday, May 8.
The nine embarkasih in question are Banda Aceh, Medan, Padang, Jakarta-Pondok Gede, Solo, Banjarmasin, Balikpapan, Makassar, and Lombok.
"On the first day of May 12, phase 1 of Hajj departure in 2024 is planned to depart from seven embarkations, namely Jakarta, Solo, Medan, Banjarmasin, Lombok, Makassar, and Padang. Where the first flight of Garuda Indonesia's Hajj operations this year," he explained.
To optimize the entire series of Hajj flights, continued Irfan, Garuda Indonesia operates 14 wide-body aircraft including the B777-300ER and A330 fleets owned by Garuda Indonesia.
Irfan said that this year's Hajj flight operations are one of Garuda Indonesia Group's important moments, for the trust that was again given to Garuda as the airline that organizes the air transportation of Indonesian pilgrims this year.
"It is believed to deliver prospective pilgrims from Indonesia to perform the pilgrimage to the Holy Land for more than six decades, of course it is our own pride as well as our responsibility to ensure that the quality of service, operations, and safety for all people who will go to the holy land is fulfilled properly," he explained.
Garuda Indonesia Preparations
Irfan explained that one of the preparation steps was to carry out the Aircraft Health Program, namely aircraft restructuring through various comprehensive and layered maintenance procedures in the fleet that would serve Hajj flights.
"This program itself has been going on intensively since last March which was accompanied by general preparations since early 2024," he explained.
Furthermore, Irfan said that Garuda Indonesia through GMF AeroAsia has also carried out various other technical preparations, such as Material/Space Readiness, Station and Manpower Readiness, and GACA (General Authority of Civil Aviation) Certification which is a mandatory process to register Hajj aircraft with the Royal Authority of Saudi Arabia.
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In addition, in terms of passenger services, Garuda Indonesia has also prepared food offerings in the flight service in the form of hot meals at least twice and snacks once. Meanwhile, Garuda Indonesia provides improvisation with special dishes from each embarkation area.
"Referring to the previous year's Hajj flight, more than 20 percent of the total number of pilgrims delivered by Garuda is an elderly (elderly) category, so this year, Garuda Indonesia also focuses on meeting the needs of elderly service supporters on air and land travel to and from the dormitory," he explained.
These efforts are allowanced with comfort support equipment when carrying out flights such as providing blankets and emergency equipment, optimizing boarding management to preparing 30 wheelchairs in each embarkation.
In addition, in the 2024 Hajj season, Garuda Indonesia increased the number of ground officers to 10 percent of the number of officers in the previous year for prospective pilgrims to carry out their pilgrimage.
"We understand that more than 66 percent of the prospective pilgrims we serve this year have diverse educational backgrounds and not many of them have never used air transportation modes before," he explained.
"This condition is a challenge in itself that encourages us, together with all relevant stakeholders, to continue to coordinate intensively to ensure the presence of safe and comfortable services for all congregants with various backgrounds," he said.
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