ISLAMABAD – Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) successfully concluded its Hajj operation on Sunday, months after starting the operation, bringing all pilgrims back home.
According to a PIA spokesman, the pre-Hajj operation ran from May 9 to June 11, followed by the post-Hajj operation from June 20 to July 21.
As far as the statistics are concerned, during the post-Hajj phase, PIA operated a total of 143 flights, with 61 flights from Jeddah and 82 from Madinah.
A total of 34,663 pilgrims returned home after performing Hajj on PIA flights. Of these, 19,278 were under the government scheme, 14,754 under the private Hajj scheme, and 631 “Khudams” were blessed with Hajj.
The Chief Executive Officer of PIA lavished praise on the teams involved in the Hajj operation, noting that the mission was accomplished transparently despite challenging conditions. The CEO also praised the efforts of the teams both in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia for their dedication and hard work throughout the operation.
It bears mentioning that while PIA is operating routine flights to and from Pakistan, the government has decided to privatize the carrier for which pre-bidding has been completed.
The federal government has announced that the bidding for the cash-strapped national carrier would take place in August. Currently, the biggest challenge for the airline is to get the ban imposed by Europe on operating flights to European destinations lifted.
