Every year on the occasion of Hajj, the holy pilgrimage undertaken by Muslims worldwide, thousands of people fly to Mecca. The airlines have to handle the increased rush and because of that a lot of problems can occur.
Thankfully, PIA managed to do well this year. Notorious for their horrible service and late flights, the national airline managed to be on time for over 90% of the flights which is a commendable feat.
According to a PIA spokesperson, the Hajj operation concluded today when the last flight from Jeddah arrived at Quetta. Danyal Gilani, the spokesperson said,
PIA's hajj operation concludes. 51,000+ hujjaj brought back on 123 special hajj flts & 125 scheduld flts. Punctuality of Spl hajj flts: 98% pic.twitter.com/RPA48XhbOT
— Digi Fusion (@DigiFusion24) October 17, 2016
Statistics at the Beginning of Hajj season
At the start of the Hajj, PIA’s pre-Hajj operation was carried out between 4th August and 5th September. Within this duration, PIA transported more than 51,000 passengers headed for Hajj on 115 flights. The total number of scheduled flights was 150 with 92.2% of the flights being on time or ahead of scheduled time.
PIA’s Hajj operations were carried out in 10 cities across Pakistan. They included Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Sukkur, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Multan and Rahim Yar Khan.
Hajj Season Concludes
After the Hajj season concluded, PIA started its post-Hajj operation from 17th September to 17th October (today). During the post-Hajj operations, a total of 125 flights were scheduled out of which 123 flights operated on time. As mentioned by Danyal Gilani earlier, the punctuality of these flights stood at 98%.
The effort is commendable on PIA’s part. Bringing back the Hujjaj safely and on time should be the top most priority of locally operated airlines during the Hajj season.
