flynas, the Saudi air carrier and the leading low-cost airline in the Middle East, has welcomed its first pilgrims’ flight this year, arriving at Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Airport in Madinah on Saturday, June 10, ushering the start of operations for the Hajj season of 1444 AH (2023), as part of the Makkah Route Initiative, one of the Saudi Vision 2030 programs to serve the pilgrims.

Senior officials from flynas received the arriving pilgrims from Cote d’Ivoire with flowers, dates, and Saudi coffee introducing them to Saudi hospitality within the outstanding travel experience and top-notch services offered by flynas to its guests.

This year, flynas is transporting more than 100,000 pilgrims from 13 countries during the Hajj season, bringing the total number of pilgrims and Umrah performers flown by the carrier to more than two million since its launch in 2007.

Bander Almohanna, CEO of flynas, said: “We are proud to participate in the Makkah Route Initiative to receive the pilgrims and provide them with the best service and experience since booking their flynas flights, through their trip to the Kingdom and all along their stay until departure after performing the Hajj.”

He stressed that flynas works in close cooperation with the concerned government entities to provide an integrated experience for the pilgrims, reflecting the unlimited support for the Hajj and Umrah sector, in which the aviation sector is one of its main development factors, and in line with the objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030 to increase the number of the pilgrims and Umrah performers to 30 million by 2030.

“We have upscaled our fleet to enhance operational capacity and deployed a specialized executive team to be available and working around the clock from the main operations center to meet the pilgrims’ needs and ensure their comfort in cooperation with the concerned authorities, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the airports and aviation authorities for supporting flynas efforts that are in line with the Kingdom’s overall care of pilgrims,” Almohanna added.

Gearing up for the Hajj season, flynas has taken delivery in early May of its fourth wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft, boosting the operational capacity and increasing the number of passengers on new medium-to-long-haul destinations, in line with the National Civil Aviation Strategy to reach 330 million passengers and increasing the number of international destinations connected to the Kingdom to more than 250 destinations by 2030.

The “Makkah Route Initiative,” a fast-track program launched in 2019, aims to receive the pilgrims and to complete their travel procedures from their countries easily and smoothly, starting with issuing the visa electronically, passing through the completion of passport procedures at the airport of the country of departure after verifying the availability of health requirements, in addition to coding and sorting luggage according to transportation and housing arrangements in the Kingdom. Upon their arrival, they move directly to buses taking them to their residence in Makkah and Madinah with designated lanes, while service agencies deliver their luggage to their homes.