JAKARTA: Indonesia started its Hajj flights on Wednesday with expanded access to the Makkah Route, as Saudi authorities added a new major Indonesian airport to the flagship initiative that streamlines immigration procedures for pilgrims.
Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, will send 221,000 pilgrims this year to perform the spiritual journey that is one of the tenets of Islam.
With Hajj expected to begin on May 25, special pilgrimage flights from Indonesia began on Wednesday and are scheduled to run until May 21.
“Our hope is that the departures go smoothly, that the pilgrims are healthy, and they can worship peacefully,” Minister of Hajj and Umrah Mochamad Irfan Yusuf said as he saw off the first group departing from Jakarta.
“This is not (merely) a physical journey, but a journey of the soul, a journey to the most solemn point in a Muslim’s life.”
This year, the Makkah Route initiative is available for the first time for pilgrims departing from Makassar, South Sulawesi.
It is the fourth and latest Indonesian city where the program has been launched, after Jakarta, Solo and Surabaya.
Many Indonesian pilgrims will be departing under the pre-travel program, which was launched by Saudi Arabia in 2019 to help pilgrims meet all the visa, customs and health requirements at their airport of origin and save them long hours of waiting before and upon arrival in the Kingdom.
“We are very thankful to the Saudi government for helping us to speed up the immigration process for Indonesian pilgrims through this fast-track route,” Indonesian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Abdul Aziz Ahmad said in a video statement.
Indonesia is among 10 Muslim-majority countries — including Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Morocco, Turkiye, Cote d’Ivoire, Maldives, Senegal and Brunei Darussalam — where Saudi Arabia is operating its Makkah Route initiative.
