Saudi Arabia gives March 3 as deadline for 2019 hajj flight allocation

The Saudi Arabia General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has announced March 3, 2019 as deadline to airliners for submission of request for passenger’s allocation for the 2019 hajj exercise.

The deadline was announced at the just-concluded 2019 Hajj preparations meeting between Saudi Civil Agency and Nigeria’s Hajj Commission held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

A statement by spokesperson of the commission, Fatima Sanda Usara, posited that the timeline became pertinent to forestall unfortunate flight cancellation experienced during 2018 exercise.

According to the statement, Commissioner of Operations from the Hajj Commission, Alhaji Abdullahi Modibbo Saleh, said the pegged timeline was intended to forestall a repeat of the 2018 challenges, among which is the commission’s resolve to determine early allocation of air carriers to states with the corresponding number of pilgrims to each carrier based on agreed criteria.”