Staff Reporter :
Biman Bangladesh Airlines on Sunday cancelled a scheduled Hajj flight due to visa complexities.
A total of 406 Hajj pilgrims were supposed to fly to Saudi Arabia at 7.45 pm from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport but they failed to report for the flight, General Manager of Public Relations, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Shakil Meraj, told The New Nation yesterday.
“The situation arose due to visa complexities of Hajj pilgrims. It will cause economic losses and rescheduling harassment for pilgrims and also for Biman,” he mentioned.
He said as private Hajj tour operators failed to get visas of pilgrims within the schedule date, the flight has been cancelled.
A fresh flight schedule will be announced later to carry the pilgrims to Jeddah, he added. However, Hajj pilgrims alleged that their agencies’ failure to rent houses for them in Makkah, lack of assigning Muallems there, and complexity with issuance of clearance letter for visa permission have created such complexities. For this, they said, they were unable to fly on the scheduled flight for performing Hajj.
General Secretary of the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) M Shahadat Hossain Taslim reasoned introduction of E-Hajj System by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for such visa complexities.
“Not only our Hajj pilgrims are facing such complexities, pilgrims from other countries are also facing such visa problems. They will get visa only after meeting the E-Hajj System requirements,” Taslim added.
He affirmed: “We are keen to take care of such complexities and working to assist the pilgrims. Nobody will be left behind who have registered. We will reschedule them to fly soon.”
