By Mohamed Attia
EgyptAir ended this year’s Hajj season with great success and without any negative remarks.
The EgyptAir air bridge for this year was characterised by smoothness and great regularity, as nearly 35,000 pilgrims were transported to the holy sites on board 150 flights, with an average of 78 flights to Jeddah and 72 flights to Madinah.
EgyptAir has transported around 11,000 from the lottery pilgrims, 5,300 pilgrims from social solidarity, and civil society organizations, in addition to 5,000 pilgrims from tourist agencies and individuals.
During this year’s Hajj season, the national company succeeded in transporting 7,400 pilgrims from Bamako, Mali, on board 24 flights, and 3,000 Palestinian pilgrims on board 10 flights, bringing the number of pilgrims transported by EgyptAir to about 45,000 pilgrims.
On the other hand, the Hajj mission of the EgyptAir Company in Jeddah, headed by Khaled Atwa, organized a function marking the end of the Hajj season, during which they honoured the members of the mission.
Consul General of Egypt in Jeddah Ambassador Hisham Fathy, Pilot Mohamed Moussa, President of EgyptAir Airlines, Engineer Ibrahim Fawzy, head of EgyptAir Ground Services, Amr Adawi, President of EgyptAir commercial department, and Youssef Gad, director of the EgyptAir region in Saudi Arabia, attended the event.
During the celebration, Minister of Civil Aviation Mohamed Abbas phoned the attendants and thanked all members of the EgyptAir mission in appreciation of their efforts during the Hajj season.
During his speech at the ceremony, Pilot Mohamed Moussa, President of the Egyptian Airlines, conveyed a cable of greetings and appreciation from Eng. Yahia Zakaria, Board Chairman of the EgyptAir Holding Company, for the smooth work, good coordination, and continuous communication between the Egyptian authorities and their Saudi counterparts, who spared no effort in providing all facilities to EgyptAir pilgrims.
Khaled Atwa, head of the Hajj mission and vice president of the EgyptAir commercial sector, said that the company succeeded during the return phase in operating all flights at Jeddah and Madinah airports for pilgrims from tourism and transit companies, as well as pilgrims from Palestine and Mali without any problems or baggage delays.
The Hajj season for this year witnessed, for the first time, about 91% of the return flights taking off from the northern terminal and not from the city of pilgrims in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Likewise, the Hajj season witnessed a state of harmony between the EgyptAir teams, whether in the reservation and sales group, EgyptAir Ground Services staff, as well as the maintenance company’s working team, operations and central control officers.
For its part, the Cairo Airport Company, headed by Magdy Ishak, succeeded in organizing Hajj trips inside the travel and arrival halls in the seasonal trips terminal designated for Hajj and Umrah flights, and Terminal No. 2, which is designated for Saudi Airlines flights.
Sources at the airport stated that all the authorities in charge of the Hajj season at EgyptAir worked round the clock to provide all means of comfort for the pilgrims during travel and return trips.
EgyptAir has formed work teams to help the elderly and people with special needs, in addition to detecting lighting, and doing maintenance for all baggage belts.
For its part, the Quarantine Department at Cairo Airport, under the leadership of Dr. Amani Al-Imam, was keen during the Hajj season to conduct medical check-ups on pilgrims, educate them and follow up on their health, after returning from the holy sites.
Al-Imam, Director of the Quarantine Department at Cairo International Airport, said that there are doctors who travelled board EgyptAir flights to examine the general health status of the pilgrims upon entering the plane, and to give them health-monitoring cards.
Amani Al-Imam added that any emergency during the return trips was dealt with medically, noting that all the cases that arrived until the end of the season are all normal cases.
The director of the Quarantine Department stated that we did not detect any cases returning from Hajj infected with coronavirus, and there was no epidemic diseases. All pilgrims are in normal condition.
The General Administration of Cairo International Airport Police was also keen to provide all facilities during the season of travel and return of the pilgrims.
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