The first flights carrying 602 passengers for the annual pilgrimage departed from Karachi and Lahore. In Karachi, a flight took off at 4 am with 330 pilgrims heading to Madina. In Lahore, around 279 pilgrims departed for Madina on a private flight.
PIA, the national flag carrier, is utilizing Boeing 777 and Airbus 320 aircraft for this year’s Hajj operations. Over 300 scheduled flights will be conducted to accommodate a total of 65,000 passengers for the sacred journey.
The commencement of Hajj flight operations was marked by the presence of Director Hajj Karachi, Sajjad Haider, DG Benazir Income Support Programme, Imtiaz Shah, and officials from the airline and aviation authority, who reviewed the operations.
In addition, another PIA flight, PK-743, is scheduled to depart from Islamabad at 9:15 pm tonight. Pakistan holds a significant position among countries with a strong admiration and enthusiasm for the annual pilgrimage, ranking second after Indonesia in terms of the number of passengers participating in Hajj.
