The budget-carrier SpiceJet continues to capitalize on the opportunity of annual Islamic pilgrimage ‘Hajj’ this year by launching a total of 148 flights from Srinagar to Medina and Jeddah, and back. These seasonal flights are expected to assist around 11,000 Hajj pilgrims from Srinagar who will have the religious gathering at Mecca. SpiceJet is deploying Boeing 737-800 aircraft for the initiative.
SpiceJet Flights for Hajj Pilgrimage
The services are already underway from July 4, 2019. The next set of flights is dated from August 16 to September 11, 2019.
According to Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director of SpiceJet, the airline considers this as an honour to serve the pilgrims travel to Mecca. “We offer our best wishes to all pilgrims as they embark on this once in a lifetime journey and we will make every effort to provide a hassle-free and delightful travel experience for all our pilgrim passengers,” Singh said.
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Hajj Officer from Srinagar Muhammed Maqbool has confirmed to Tripoto that they are working closely with the Airports Authority of India for the smooth operations of flights. Accommodation for some of the pilgrims, who are from far-flung areas, are made in Srinagar. The number of flights daily was initially two, and this has now increased to four.
SpiceJet Serving Flights from Srinagar to Jeddah
Jeddah is close to the pilgrim destinations of Makkah and Medina, and Jeddah’s King Abdul Aziz International Airport is the main transit points for lakhs of Hajj pilgrims and tourists across the globe. SpiceJet is handling Hajj operations from Srinagar for the first time. Earlier in March, it announced commercial flight operations between Hyderabad to Jeddah. SpiceJet had also conducted Hajj pilgrimage from Bhopal and Indore last few years.
“In past, we operated some Hajj flights from the Valley in 2011, but this is for the first time we are handling the operations entirely. The fact that SpiceJet now operates flights from various cities in India shows that the airline has grown by leaps and bounds,” an unnamed official reportedly said to a Kashmir newspaper.
