Hajj flight on time now

After the delays on the first two days, Bangladesh Biman's return Hajj flight was on schedule on the third day.

On the third day, Biman's flight carrying back the faithful from Hajj have operated on schedule, says Jeddah Hajj Mission.

For the first two days, these flights were delayed because the pilgrims failed to reach the airport on time. Jeddah Hajj Mission's Fayzur Rahman told bdnews24.com: "On the first two days, the rush was far too much, so the vehicles carrying them to the airport failed to reach on time."

Rahman said due to delay in reaching the airport, many pilgrims missed their slots for clearing immigration."

"The flights naturally got delayed," he said.

Biman's spokesperson Taslim Akhtar blamed the delays on 'immigration botch-ups'.

"The delay in clearing immigration led to the flights starting late on the first two days."

But on the third day, Akhtar and Rahman both claimed none of these problems cropping up again.

On Thursday, the first Biman flight coming back with Hajj pilgrims landed four hours behind schedule in Dhaka.

The second such Biman flight on Friday landed six hours behind schedule.

But Saudi Arabian Airlines and Nas Air, the two other airlines carrying back Hajj pilgrims to Bangladesh, operated their flights on schedule in the last two days.

"All our Hajj flights are on time. None has suffered delay," a Saudi Arabian airlines spokesman told bdnews24.com.

Passengers understandably did not suffer.

But Biman has got its act together on Saturday operating the Hajj flight on time.

"Hope there is no more delays," said Fayzur Rahman.

He said passenger luggage were being collected 24 hours before departure through 'city checking' arrangements to avoid delays.

The website of the Religious Affairs ministry says on Saturday two flights with 838 Hajj pilgrims landed at Dhaka at 11.35 am and 3.35 pm.

Another flight has taken off with Hajj pilgrims at 8.35am Saudi time and is likely to land at Dhaka at 7.50pm Bangladesh time.

Biman will fly 134 flights from Saudi Arabia carrying back Hajj pilgrims until 8th November.

Nearly 100,000 pilgrims from Bangladesh have joined 2 million Muslims from all over the world to perform Hajj this year.

Only 1500 of them have travelled to perform Hajj on government .packages, the remaining 97000 have done that on private arrangements.

The Hajj flights from Bangladesh started on Aug 27. In keeping with the agreement between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabian government, fifty percent of the Hajj traffic has been handled by Biman and the remaining fifty percent by Saudi Arabian Airlines and Nas Air.