PIA hajj operation 2012 completed successfully with 85 percent post hajj flights from Jeddah arriving on time.
Last hajj flight PK-3662 arrived in Quetta early Friday morning. PIA has brought back about 100,000 pilgrimages to Pakistan.
PIA has carried 83,000 pilgrimages through 196 flights to Pakistan. Some 1,989 pilgrimages were flown back to Rangoon by four chartered flights while over 15,000 pilgrimages travelled through schedule flights. The airline’s 21 hajj flights brought back 10,353 pilgrimages to Karachi, 17,385 through 35 flights to Islamabad, 16,783 through 34 flights to Lahore and 13,973 pilgrimages to Peshawar through 43 post hajj flights. PIA carried back 13,275 hajjis to Quetta by 41 post-hajj flights, 7,006 pilgrimages to Multan by 14 flights and 3,491 pilgrimages to Sialkot by seven post-hajj flights. PIA MD Muhammad Junaid Yunus said that overcrowding at Jeddah Hajj Terminal where 80,000 to 100,000 passengers arrive at the same time for their return journey to other countries through 74 different international airlines cause’s initial delays in departures of flights due to security checks, immigration formalities etc.