Minister Of Religion Considers Delayed Hajj Flights A Reasonable Dynamics

JAKARTA - Minister of Religion (Menag) Yaqut Cholil Qoumas assessed that flight delays are a natural dynamic that occurs in organizing the hajj.

"Yes, in my opinion, it's a matter of late airlines, it's a normal thing," Yaqut said as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, June 13.

The Minister of Religion compared this with the delays that occurred in the regular commercial aviation sector in normal days.

"Moreover, this large number of pilgrims (hajj candidates) must be high in dynamics, so it's normal (flight delays)," he said.

Overall, the Minister of Religion assessed that the implementation of the Indonesian Hajj 1444 Hijri had gone well without ignoring the small shortcomings that were still there here and there.

"Alhamdulillah, everything is going well, neat, yes, of course there are small shortcomings here and there, it's natural in my opinion," said Yaqut.

Previously, in an evaluation meeting for the implementation of the 1444 H online Hajj led by the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Muhadjir Effendy on Tuesday (6/6) last week, the Minister of Religion explained a number of reasons for the delay in Hajj flights submitted by the airline.

For Garuda airlines, there are aircraft share delays that must be imported from Lithuania due to disruption of the global supply chain due to the Russian armed conflict "Ukraine".

Meanwhile, Saudia Airlines acknowledged that there was unpreparedness for the aircraft according to the contract, including from the capacity aspect.

On the other hand, on Monday (12/6), the Minister of Religion appreciated the improvement in timeliness and departure services for the second wave of Indonesian pilgrims by the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This can be seen with an increase in timeliness of only 70 percent in the first five days of the first batch of departures to above 80 percent in the five days of the second wave of departure.

Indonesia as a whole received a quota of 229,000 prospective pilgrims for the implementation of Hajj 1444 H. The Integrated Hajj Information and Computerization System (Siskohat) noted that as of June 12, 2023 at 24.00 WIB, 134,461 Indonesian Hajj participants had arrived in Saudi Arabia in 349 flying groups.