Ministry Of Religion Invites Airlines To Participate In Auctions For Hajj Flights 2024

Director of Domestic Hajj Services at the Ministry of Religion Saiful Mujab. (ANTARA/HO-Kemenag)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Religion invited national airlines and Saudi Arabia to participate in the flight auction process for pilgrims for regular Hajj 1445 Hijri/2024 AD, after the process of providing the service auction was opened.

"We have invited all national airlines of Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. This is to provide equal opportunities, transparency, and accountability," said Director of Domestic Hajj Services at the Ministry of Religion Saiful Mujab as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, December 13.

Saiful said the coordination meeting for the provision of air transportation for Indonesian pilgrims had taken place in Jakarta on December 12, 2023.

The meeting scheduled a technical explanation regarding the auction process for the provision of air transportation services for the Hajj season 1445 Hijri/2024 AD.

"The implementation of the hajj is getting closer. It takes hard work from all parties to make it a success," he said.

He hopes that the stages of the price negotiation process will be completed on December 21, 2023, so that he can immediately propose a draft Hajj fee set out in the Presidential Decree on the Cost of Organizing Hajj.

Saiful explained that the flight scheme for the regular Hajj next year will be slightly different from before. Congregational flights are still carried out in two waves.

The first wave departed from the country and landed at the Airport of Amir Muhammad bin Abdul Aziz (AMAA) Medina. The second wave departed from Indonesia and landed at Jeddah King Abdul Aziz International Airport (KAAIA). However, the flight period and composition changed.

The composition of first and second batch flights is no longer 50 percent compared to 50 percent. For the 2024 Hajj season, the first batch of flights from Indonesia to Medina is planned to last for 12 days with 40 percent of prospective hajj participants.

Meanwhile, the second wave of flights from Indonesia to Jeddah lasted for 18 days with 60 percent of prospective hajj participants.

"The thing that needs to be paid attention to is that the implementation of the 2024 Hajj pilgrimage is still colored by the number of elderly pilgrims. The figure is around 46 thousand. So it still takes the role of airlines to provide higher quality elderly friendly services," he said.