‘Madinah airport ready for departure of pilgrims’

MORE than 5,000 workers at Prince Muhammad Bin Abdul Aziz International Airport, Madinah, are ready and enthusiastic to serve the guests of God processing their passports for departure, according to the airport’s director, Majed Abu Dawood.

Abu Dawood said the first return Hajj flight took off from the airport on Wednesday.

The director said the airport had completed all preparations to see the pilgrims off after they had completed their pilgrimage and paid homage to Prophet Muhammad.

Director of the airports’ operating company, Sufyan Abdul Salam, said about 676,000 pilgrims had arrived for the Hajj via the airport with an increase of about 23 percent over their number last year.

He said the pilgrims came onboard 3,156 flights with an increase of 25 percent over the number of the flights last year. He expected the return Hajj flights to go up by about 45 percent this year.

The Head of the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA), Abdul Hakim Mohammed Al-Tamimi, on Tuesday, inspected the airport and asked all its staff members to exert more efforts in completing the passport processing for the pilgrims and said the airport had spruced for the farewell of the pilgrims.

Meanwhile, about 6,000 medical cadres of doctors, nurses, technicians and administrators will be providing preventive and curative treatment to the pilgrims who have gathered in Madinah these days.

More than 700,000 pilgrims came to Madinah from Makkah and the holy sites after completing their Hajj.

The General Directorate of Health Affairs in Madinah had transported 23 sick pilgrims onboard 31 ambulances to the holy sites to complete their pilgrimage.