Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) successfully completed its pre-Haj flight operations on Thursday, according to a PIA spokesperson.

This year, over 53,000 pilgrims were transported to Saudi Arabia for Haj via 210 flights of the airline, the spokesperson said.

The success rate of these flights was 97 per cent, i.e., more than 97pc of flights departed on time. This was 7pc higher than the set target, the spokesperson added.

Direct flights were operating from Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Sialkot and Quetta for the pre-Haj period.

The post-Haj operation is due to start on May 30 and will end on June 30 this year.

Meanwhile, PIA has completed the necessary steps for the post-Haj operations, the spokesperson elaborated.

PIA’s pre-Hajj operation formally commenced on 19 April, with 49,000 pilgrims set to travel under the government scheme, while over 6,000 others under private Hajj group operators were also facilitated through PIA flights.

Under the “Route to Makkah” facility, modern immigration services were provided to pilgrims to facilitate smooth travel procedures.

This year, the Road to Makkah project was expanded to Lahore, in addition to Karachi and Islamabad, and was expected to benefit over 95,000 pilgrims, Radio Pakistan reported earlier.