PETALING JAYA: The government has obtained an additional quota of 2,100 Muassasah haj pilgrims, courtesy of the Saudi Arabian government and had carried out several flights since last Wednesday.
Tabung Haji (TH) chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim said TH, in collaboration with Malaysia Airlines Berhad, had engaged the Airbus A380 aircraft with a passenger capacity of 490 each.
“This is the first time the A380 type of aircraft is being used by TH for the haj operations.
“The additional flights, KT 66, 67 and 68 as well as several commercial flights had been safely carried out up to Sept 17 with a total of 1,612 pilgrims (additional quota),” he said at a media conference at the TH Complex, Kelana Jaya, here today.
He said the last flight for the additional pilgrims, which is KT 69, was scheduled to leave at 12 noon tomorrow with 489 pilgrims.
In addition, he said the original quota of 22,320 Muassasah haj pilgrims had flown to the Holy Land on Wednesday and they were in good health in Makkah.
Meanwhile, the DNA samples of two Malaysian pilgrims who were still missing following the crane crash tragedy had been handed over to the Saudi authorities for identification pusposes at the Muaissem morgue in Mina. – BERNAMA