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ational flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will operate 15 wide-bodied aircraft to fly thousands of Indonesian pilgrims to perform the haj in Mecca beginning next month.

Garuda’s vice president of corporate communications Pujobroto said in Jakarta on Friday that the 15 aircraft, which would comprise one Boeing 767, three Boeing 747s, and 11 Airbus A330-300s, would be chartered from Europe and the US.

“The airplanes that we will use to send the pilgrims are relatively new as requested by the Religious Affairs Ministry. One plane was made in 2010,” Pujobroto said.

According to ministry data, the Indonesian pilgrims quota set by the Saudi Arabian government in this year’s haj season totals 211,000 people: 194,000 will use a regular haj service organized by the ministry and the other 17,000 will use a premium haj service handled by travel companies.

The pilgrims using the regular haj service will be flown by Garuda and Saudi Arabian Airlines.

He said Garuda would fly 112,683 pilgrims that would be divided into 295 batches departing from 10 different airports nationwide and added that the departure would begin from Sept. 21 to Oct. 20, while return flights would be carried out from Oct. 31 to Dec. 1.

This year, direct flight services to Medina would only be available from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Sept. 21 to Oct. 5 for departures, with return services on Nov. 15 to Dec. 1.

In addition, Garuda is also expanding its haj service from Lombok International Airport in West Nusa Tenggara province this year.

“We will start providing services for pilgrims in Lombok this year. We are going to send as many as 4,564 pilgrims to Mecca from the island,” Pujobroto said.

The largest group of pilgrims would be flown from Adi Sumarmo Airport in Surakarta, Central Java. He said 33,353 people would fly to Mecca from the airport next month.

The second largest group would come from Jakarta, with 22,151 people.

In order to provide convenience to its customers, the airline has hired cabin crews from 33 provinces.

“Sixty percent of 556 crew members are hired from different provinces to ease language problems, given that many of the pilgrims only speak their local languages,” he said.

He said Garuda was also providing local food to the pilgrims’ liking and giving each of them 5 liters of Zamzam water when they arrived in Indonesia to step up their level of customer service.

Religious Affairs Ministry spokesman Zainuddin Daulay said Indonesia was unlikely to encounter problems in sending pilgrims this year because both airlines, Garuda Indonesia and Saudi Arabian Airlines, had shown their readiness.

“We believe both carriers are ready to send the pilgrims this year because they have done this many times,” Zainuddin said.

He said those who had opted for the premium haj service or the ONH Plus package, costing US$4,000 to $6,000 per person, would be flown by other airlines such as Emirates and Etihad.

The regular package would cost $3,617.