Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday
issued notice to Saudi Arabian Airlines to improve service for
Haj pilgrims "within 24 hours", saying it had received a
number of complaints against it.
"A notice has been served to Saudi Arabian airlines
for improving its services within 24 hours after a number of
complaints against it," an official spokesman said here.
The government also clarified that it was not
responsible for delay in flights and blamed the Central Haj
Committee and the airlines.
The spokesman said that over 15,000 pilgrims had to go
for Haj from Lucknow and three flights of Saudi Arabian
airlines were flying from here daily.
"The Haj pilgrims are facing a lot of problems as
the airlines is not timely issuing air tickets and boarding
passes to them," he alleged.
He said that yesterday 300 passengers had to leave for
Madina but 40 could not board plane as they were not given
tickets by the airlines claiming that the server was down in
Saudi Arabia.
The spokesman added that the state government was
committed to providing all facilities to Haj pilgrims and
adequate arrangements had been made for them in this
regard.
This year, Saudi Arabian airlines had won the bid to
carry Haj pilgrims to Jeddah. It is expected to run 525 return
flights to Jeddah from 21 destinations across the country.
The first Haj flights commenced on October nine and the
operations would continue till early November.
PTI
