National News

KARACHI, Oct 17 (APP): PIA has successfully completed its Hajj operation early on Monday when last Hajj flight PK-3528 which was operated from Jeddah arrived at Quetta carrying 200 Hujjaj. The spokesman of the national flag carrier said here that operation from Madinah had already come to an end a day earlier when PK-3526 was operated from Jeddah to Multan carrying 305 passengers. He said that during the post-Hajj operation which was started on 17th September and came to an end today, PIA operated 123 special Hajj flights and 125 scheduled flights to bring back more than 51,000 Hujjaj. Punctuality of special hajj flights in this phase remained 98%, the PIA spokesman further pointed out. Earlier, PIA’s pre-Hajj operation was carried out between August 4and September 5.During the pre-Hajj operation, PIA had transported more than 51,000 intending Hujjaj on 115 special Hajj flights and around 150 scheduled flights.About 92.2 percent of special Hajj flights were operated on or ahead of scheduled time. Both pre and post Hajj operation were carried out from 10 cities of Pakistan which include Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Sukkur, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Multan and Rahimyarkhan. PIA’s CEO Bernd Hildenbrand appreciated the efforts of the entire team which led and executed the Hajj operation especially Chief Hajj Coordinator Captain Anwar Adil, who personally supervised the entire Hajj operation. In his message to the employees on the successful completion of Hajj operation, the CEO said: “Hajj and Umrah travels are very important for PIA and we are working hard to improve our service on these routes. In future we will try to provide tailor-made service to Hajj and Umrah passengers. We are looking forward to the Umrah season which is starting from the first week of November,” he said.