(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - All Egyptian Haj pilgrims will have to travel by air in 2011 as they did last year, an Egyptian official has said.“No Haj pilgrim will be traveling by sea this year,” Executive Chairman of the Egyptian Haj Mission Maj. Gen. Salah Hashim told Arab News on Tuesday.“The plan to ferry pilgrims by ship has been abandoned because no shipping company has come forward to ferry them to Saudi Arabia and back after the Egyptian Ministry of Interior invited bids for safe transportation of pilgrims by sea,” Hashim said.The number of Egyptian pilgrims has been estimated at 90,000 this year. EgyptAir and Saudi Arabian Airlines are the companies authorized to transport Haj pilgrims this year, Hashim said.He added that half of the pilgrims would be flown to Madinah and return via Jeddah after the pilgrimage, while the other half would be flown to Jeddah and return from Madinah.Hashim said the cost of pilgrimage would be a little higher compared to 2010 because of the 35 percent hike in house rent in the central zone of Makkah as well as a stronger Saudi riyal.He said the ministry did not seek a profit in return for undertaking the Haj operations. “The expense and allowances of the Haj mission officials are included in the ministry’s annual budget,” he said.A ferry carrying about 1,400 pilgrims sank in the Red Sea in February 2006. The Al-Salam Boccaccio ’98 went down about 80 km off the Egyptian coast during an overnight journey from Duba in Saudi Arabia to Safaga./129
source : Arab News
Wednesday
13 July 2011
7:30:00 PM
253399
All Egyptian Haj pilgrims will have to travel by air in 2011 as they did last year, an Egyptian official has said.