FLYING THE HAJJ The Hajj is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, and a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey, and can support their family during their absence.
It is one of Islam's five "pillars"!. The gathering during Hajj is considered the largest annual gathering of people in the world. The state of being physically and financially capable of performing the Hajj is called istita'ah, and a Muslim who fulfills this condition is called a mustati. The Hajj is a demonstration of the solidarity of the Muslim people, and their submission to God (Allah). The word Hajj means "to intend a journey", which connotes both the outward act of a journey and the inward act of intentions.
Each year, Moslem countries face a drastic increase in the demand for Air Transport from home to the Holy sites of Islam located in that case in Saudi Arabia, around the town of Mecca. This increase in demand requires the utilization of additional airlift capacity provided by foreign operators, mostly in the “charter” business. Contracts are signed for the duration of the Hajj operation which is composed of two phases consisting of taking the pilgrims from their home country to Saudi Arabia and bringing the pilgrims back from Saudi Arabia to their home country.
Between these two phases, there is usually a “ rest” period for crews while the pilgrims are conducting the required rituals in Mecca. Each year, the new Jeddah airport and its dedicated pilgrim terminal see the landing of many foreign airplanes chartered by various Moslem countries. Usually Hajj flights operated under the sponsorship of respective countries’ flag carrier, and in full coordination with the Saudi civil aviation and religious authority. Landing and take-off slots are monitored by a specific civil aviation unit to ensure smoothness of operation.
(My first Hadj mission : a sub contract for Royal Air Maroc!)
Participating in many Hajj flights operation was an incredible experience for me as I had never been exposed to such mass movements. My first hajj operation took place in Morocco with Seaboard World Airlines. Our Offline Operation department had been contacted by the National Moroccan air carrier RAM (Royal Air Maroc) and contract had been signed to transport to and from Jeddah about 5000 pilgrims coming from the Casablanca and Oujda area. Royal Air Maroc had been flying “hajj” since 1957 but in the early 70’s, the airline’s capacity was far below what would have been required to fly several thousands of pilgrims, amongst which were “our” 5000.
The company had selected the Holiday Inn Hotel in Oujda as our temporary base for the duration of the operation. In the distance, one could see the top of the Atlas chain of mountains covered in snow. It was November. 1976 ? Too far away to remember ! As the operation representative for Seaboard World Airlines, I was in daily contact with the management of Royal Air Maroc, and was invited, when possible, to share the evening meal with the Station Manager of RAM. We would be sitting on carpets, around a dish of “couscous” and would discuss Moroccan traditions and operational details while women would be in the next room ….
Because we were operating for Royal Air Maroc, and because none of us spoke Arabic, our cabin crew included two male flight attendants assigned by Royal Air Maroc to translate in Arabic the instructions from either the flight-deck or the US cabin crew assigned to the operation.
(On the way to Mecca...!)
Our passengers were not rich! They had possibly scraped and saved for a long time so that they could now board a modern airplane and fly to accomplish their pilgrimage. Quite a few of them were illiterate, most of them had never been inside a plane before…They were carrying with them bundles of white clothing, tin spoons, tea pots, all kind of accessories to be used during their trip and to avoid taking too much cabin space we had to take all of these from their hands and load in up in the aircraft bellies…
In high density configuration, we needed to have a “clean cabin”, uncluttered by anything which could have hampered and emergency evacuation if necessary. A quick 6 and half hours to Jeddah, overflying Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, and we would land at the only airport existing in these days, not so far from the center of the town. Landing had to be on time short of delaying the movements of other operators.
At the Hajj coordination center, one could meet with ops representative from scheduled and charter carriers. There would be ops reps from Trans International Airlines, Air France, Minerve, Capitol, Overseas National Airways, all exchanging information and business cards in a traditional “ aviation” way, all wearing their own uniforms with the Ray-Ban® sunglasses hanging out from a breast pocket...which added a bit more to the "adventure spirit" all of us enjoyed. Under the powerful sun of the Saudi Kingdom, wearing good sunglasses was definitely a must !
(Pakistanese pilgrims around a "big-top" pax B747)
In line with the official “cultural policy” of the Saudi Kingdom, outside of the airplanes when on the ground, this was an “all male” world. Beside female pilgrims, the segregation was strict. Key actors at the coordination center were mostly British, either working for Saudi Arabian Airlines , the flag carrier (*) or having been contracted by the Saudi Civil Aviation.
Once passengers were deplaned, outbound clearance obtained, the airplane was refueled and re-catered for the haul back to Morocco and the 5H50 flight to Oujda (Angad) or Casablanca ( now called Mohamed V) (**). Return leg would be used to clean the aircraft cabin, eat Arabian food, crack jokes or simply catch a cat’s nap in anticipation of the next trips. This first hajj prepared me for more to come in the future years and more adventures in exotic countries such as Lybia or Nigeria…but this is another story! (*) In between the 70’s and the 90’s, Saudi Arabian Airlines met with and incredible growth of the airline and attracted expatriate ground staff and pilots alike with “higher than home” salaries and perks. Most of the Cargo system of the airline was between the ends of British expats. (**)The building of Casablanca airport begun in 1951 for the account of US Air Force which named it Nouasseur Air Base. This base was host to the Strategic Air Command bombers.US Government returned the Air Base to Morocco on August 15th 1963
© Sylvain Ubersfeld for Commercial Air Transport