Hajj flights to begin July 4

This year’s Hajj flights will begin on July 4 and will continue till August 5, Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (Haab) said today.

The return flights are scheduled to begin from August 17, Shahadat Hossain Taslim, president of Haab, said during a press conference at a hotel in Dhaka.

Pilgrims going for the holy Hajj and Umrah and migrant workers going to Middle East are, however, facing difficulties due to a sudden rise in the air fare as a number of foreign carriers reduced the frequency of flight operations from Dhaka recently, he said.

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Apart from that, UAE-based Fly Dubai and Etihad Airways stopped their operations completely in Bangladesh, which created a crisis of seats, Taslim added.

Many of the pilgrims who already collected Umrah visas and booked hotels in Saudi Arabia are waiting for their tickets but to no avail. If this continues then around 20,000 pilgrims would not be able to reach Saudi Arabia for Umrah this year, he said.

The Haab president urged the government to take necessary steps including initiation of open sky policy to solve this complicated problem.

He also suggested increasing Biman Bangladesh Airlines flights to Middle East by decreasing flights to the routes which do not find many passengers.

“Otherwise, migrant workers of our country who are currently in Bangladesh for vacation would lose their visas for not showing up at their respective work places in time,” he said.

Many of the migrant workers who are not well off are unable to join their work in time bearing the increased air fare. Their visas are either getting expired or cancelled due to this reason, Taslim added.