With large numbers expected to travel from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia this year for the upcoming Hajj season, the country’s Ministry of Religious Affairs has urged the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism to rapidly increase the number of frequencies by luring more airlines to connect the two countries, Bangladeshi media reported.
A letter signed by senior assistant secretary SM Moniruzzaman requested Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BG, Dhaka) and Saudia (SV, Jeddah International) be allowed to operate more frequencies on direct routes in order to ensure the smooth carriage of pilgrims during the Hajj this summer as well as during Ramadan in April. After the disruption of the pandemic, significant numbers of Bangladeshis are likely to want to visit Saudi Arabia also at other periods this year to perform Umrah.
In the years before the coronavirus outbreak, Umrah passengers had the opportunity to travel to Saudi Arabia also via other Middle Eastern countries, but given ongoing restrictions in some countries and with only Biman and Saudia currently catering to the pent-up demand, the letter asked for other Saudi Arabian and Bangladeshi airlines to be invited to operate direct flights. The opportunity to fly as a transit passenger, as before, should return as an option for travellers too, it added.
Tickets to make the journey in this first post-pandemic season of Eid al-Fitr to Eid al-Adha are already hard to find and ticket prices have risen steeply, noted the letter, which was penned in late March.
Asked for comment, Mokammel Hossain, secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism, told the Bengali-language Daily Sangbad Pratidin simply that he was investigating the matter.
Saudi Arabia said on April 9 that it had substantially increased its quota of people to join the Hajj pilgrimage this year to 1 million following two years of tight Covid restrictions. Pilgrims to Mecca, reached via Jeddah International, must be aged under 65, fully vaccinated, and present a recent negative PCR test. Last year, the kingdom limited the event to 60,000 domestic participants, compared to the pre-pandemic 2.5 million.
