Arrangements final to manage haj flights in fog

ISLAMABAD: The Religious Affairs Ministry has completed all arrangements to manage haj flights during fog in Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad, said Vakil Ahmed Khan, secretary of the Religious Affairs Ministry, on Wednesday.

“We will send flights four hours before their scheduled time to cope with the weather at Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad airports,” said Mr Khan. He said that originally haj flights from these airports would depart at night, but arrangements had been made to dispatch them four hours earlier. He said that the flights from Lahore would directly depart for Jeddah while the flights from Faisalabad and Multan would first land at Karachi airport for the onward journey to Jeddah through a connecting flight. The flights from Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Sukkur and Karachi would operate according to original schedule, he added. He said that the pilgrims would be informed in time in case of any change in the schedule. He said that the first haj flight carrying around 270 pilgrims would take off from Peshawar for Jeddah on December 15.

Almost 97,000 people would perform haj under the government scheme while 53,000 through the private tour operators, he added. Mr Khan said that the last flight would depart on January 15. He said that 67 flights would operate from Islamabad, 71 from Peshawar, 76 from Lahore, 108 from Karachi, 36 from Quetta, 50 from Multan, six from Sukkur and 30 from Faisalabad. app

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