Many more M'sian Haj pilgrims to arrive in holy land from Wednesday

Many more Malaysian Haj pilgrims are expected to arrive on Tabung Haji (TH) special flights in Jeddah from this Wednesday before proceeding to Makkah.

TH head of Haj delegation, Datuk Syed Saleh Syed Abdul Rahman said the number was apart from those coming from Madinah.

Speaking at a news conference here, he said the last specially chartered TH Haj flight to land at Prince Mohammed bin Abddulaziz International Airport in Madinah would be KT33, and followed by flights landing at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah.

Syed Saleh said so far, 27 TH specially chartered flights carrying 9,439 pilgrims had landed in the Holy Land, with 6,254 of them arriving in Madinah and 3,185 in Makkah.

This year, 22,320 Malaysian pilgrims will perform the Haj.

"There will be 37 more flights departing for the Holy Land from Malaysia," Syed Saleh said. He said the 478 TH supportng staff for this Haj season including 251 looking after the welfare and medical needs of the pilgrims were expected to be busy from Wednesday with their increased arrival. Syed Saleh said all TH service centres including the health clinics and food catering were fully operational. He said although the weather was hot at the moment, the pilgrims appeared to have listened to TH's advice to drink lots of water and not to engage in prolonged outside activities to avoid dehydration.