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All haj flights moved to Soekarno-Hatta airport
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Hundreds of pilgrims attend a briefing at the haj dormitory in Bekasi, West Java, on July 27. As many as 808 pilgrims departed for Saudi Arabia from either Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, or Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in Jakarta on July 28. (Antara/Risky Andrianto)
T
he government has moved all haj flights scheduled to depart from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Banten because of runway damage.
"Based on our evaluation, we decided to move all of the remaining haj flights to ensure flight safety and convenience of the haj pilgrims," Transportation Ministry director general for air transportation Agus Santoso said over the weekend.
Initially, 159 haj planes--operated by national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and Saudi Airlines--carrying 63,371 passengers were to take off from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport.
However, the airport runway reportedly was in serious damage, following the take-off of a Boeing 777 carrying haj passengers on Friday.
[RA::One haj flight moved to Soekarno-Hatta from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport::http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/07/28/one-haj-flight-moved-to-soekarno-hatta-from-halim-perdanakusuma-airport.html::An official said the airport was initially closed for three hours to repair the damage, but the government rescheduled all the haj flights.
Friday was the first day of departure for Indonesian pilgrims traveling to Saudi Arabia. This year, Indonesia will send 221,000 pilgrims to the country. Indonesians wait an average of 17 years after registration to go on the haj. (bbn)
