The first special Hajj flight PK- 9603 carrying 433 pilgrims will leave for Jeddah from Islamabad International Airport on Saturday (November 25), officials said. National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain will see off the pilgrims at the airport. The first Hajj flights PK-8401 from Lahore and PK-1101 from Karachi will also leave for Saudi Arabia on the same day while the first Hajj flight PK-1803 from Peshawar will depart on Friday. The Hajj flights from airports of Quetta, Multan and Sukkur will reach Jeddah via Karachi while Hajj flights from Faisalabad airport will be sent to Jeddah via Lahore. A total of 462 special Hajj flights will airlift 150,000 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia upto December 25. The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) would transport about 124,500 pilgrims to Jeddah and Madinah while Saudi Airline would airlift about 25,500 pilgrims for Hajj this year. To facilitate the intending pilgrims, some 16,500 pilgrims would directly be flown to Madinah Munawara out of which 15,000 would travel through PIA while 1,500 through Saudi Airline. All the return flights would be operated from Jeddah airport. The return flights would start from January 4, 2007 and would be completed on February 3 next year.
