Staff Reporter :
Biman Bangladesh Airlines was forced to suspend a total of 10 hajj flights in last two days beginning from July 14 due to shortage of pilgrims. More cancellation of hajj flights this year are apprehended.
Five hajj flights of Biman Bangladesh Airlines scheduled to fly on Thursday and Friday have been cancelled due to shortage of passengers, said Biman General Manager (Public Relations) Shakil Meraj.
With these, a total of 10 hajj flights have been cancelled due to same reason so far, he said.
“The Hajj flights have been cancelled due to shortage of pilgrims as many tickets remained unsold.” he told to this reporter.
On Thursday flights-BG-1063 at 1:55am and the other BG- 5061 at 3:45pm were cancelled and three more flights have also been cancelled.
Shakil said that 6,000 tickets remain unsold so far, and Biman has been urging the hajj agencies to purchase them as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, the Religious Affairs Ministry has finally decided to extend the quota of replacement of the registered Hajj pilgrims at 15 percent from existing eight percent responding to the pressure of the Hajj agencies of the country. An order in this regard was issued on Wednesday.
The Biman officials claimed that some air tickets still remain unsold. As a result, uncertainty looms around 6,000 pilgrims won’t be able to perform hajj this year from Bangladesh.
The Saudi authority has already informed the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Biman Bangladesh Airlines that they won’t allocate any extra slot for Bangladeshi pilgrims, he said.
“If these remaining 6,000 tickets are not sold in time, the Biman authority is likely to cancel more Hajj flights,” Shakil said.
