In a bid to cut the future travel expenses of Indonesian haj pilgrims, the Religious Affairs Ministry is considering buying aircraft that will be used to transport people on the annual journey to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

A team from the ministry is undertaking a feasibility study on this ambitious plan.

Anggito Abimanyu, the ministry's director general for haj and umrah (minor haj), confirmed the plan and said the study was expected to finish next month.

'Air transportation spending accounted for 60 percent of the total haj expenses and it increases every year. The government keeps on thinking how to cut the cost for the benefit of the people,' Anggito said.

According to data from the ministry, on average a pilgrim needs to spend around US$3,527 to perform haj in Mecca this year.

Earlier this month, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said the idea behind the plan to own planes for the pilgrims was simple.

Suryadharma said that Indonesian pilgrims spent some Rp 5 trillion ($515 million) annually on buying tickets to Mecca. With that amount of money, the ministry could buy aircraft.

'The aircraft will be used for only two to three months. However, when the haj season is over, other carriers can use them,' he said as quoted by Antara news agency.

The minister, however, guaranteed that the Haj Public Trust Fund (DAU) was safe and would not be touched. The DAU is the fund collected from haj applicants' installment deposits for haj services.

Separately, Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang S. Ervan said the airline industry was the most regulated in the world and it has never been easy to become an operator.

'It is fine if they [the ministry] want to buy an aircraft. But, the questions are what type of aircraft, who will operate them and how are they going to maintain them? Planes, whether they are flying or not, create costs,' Bambang said.

He said that if the Religious Affairs Ministry wanted to become a haj operator, they would need to submit their comprehensive study and business plan to the Transportation Ministry's air transportation directorate general, just like any other airline company.

He also said they had to think about what they would do with the aircraft when the haj season was over.

He refused to comment on whether the plan was feasible, but added that the Religious Affairs Ministry should consider the idea carefully.

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is set to operate 14 wide-bodied planes to fly 112,688 Indonesian pilgrims to Mecca during haj season this year, which will fall in September-October.

Garuda's vice president of corporate communications, Pujobroto, said the aircraft would comprise one Boeing B777-300 Extended Range (ER), three B747-400 and 10 Airbus A330-300s. They are all dry-leased from Europe and the US.

'The aircraft we are going to use are relatively new because we want to comply with the request from the Religious Affairs Ministry and deliver the best service. There are a few planes that were manufactured in 2010,' Pujobroto said.

The Indonesian nationals quota set by the Saudi Arabian government this year is 211,000 people. Some 195,000 are going to use a regular haj service organized by the ministry, while the remainder will use a premium service handled by travel agencies.

Garuda has also recruited 556 cabin crew members, 60 percent of which were recruited from cities such as Medan, Surakarta and Lombok.

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