No Hajj flights from Mangaluru Airport from 2018?

The Hajj operations from Mangaluru and a few other Indian airports are likely to be stopped, at least temporarily, as a fresh Hajj Policy drafted by a ministry of minority affairs committee has explicitly recommended reducing the embarkation points for the pilgrimage from 21 to nine.

The five-member panel appointed by the by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led union government to draft a new policy for the Hajj pilgrimage between 2018 and 2022 has pointed out that reducing the embarkation points will bring down the cost of pilgrimage to a large extent.

“The cost of travelling from smaller airport is double the cost of travelling from major airports. That’s why we have recommended limiting the embarking points to major airports in the country," said Shafi Parkar, a former judge of Bombay HC and a committee member. The nine embarkation points recommended are Delhi, Lucknow, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Begaluru and Cochin.

Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has already confirmed that the 2018 Hajj pilgrimage will be in line with the new Haj policy, which according to him, has been drafted in light of a 2012 Supreme Court order asking the Centre to abolish the Hajj subsidy gradually by 2022.

The Hajj flight operations had commenced at the Mangaluru Airport in 2009, nearly three years after it started handling international flights and three years before it secured the international airport tag. It was a dream come true for many Muslims of coastal Karnataka and neighbouring districts. Until then, Hajj pilgrims from coastal and northern regions of the state had to fly to Saudi Arabia from Bangaluru, Kozikode or Hyderabad.

For the past nine seasons, Mangaluru International Airport had been embarkation point for the Hajj pilgrims from Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru and Hassan districts of Karnataka. The local Hajj committee had been providing all the necessary support to the airport authorities to ensure smooth hajj flight operations.

The demand for the direct Hajj flight from the coastal city was first raised during a Hajj camp in Mangaluru in 2007. The very next year a delegation of 32 Muslim leaders from coastal Karnataka comprising of Congress leader U T Khader, Udupi Khazi Ibrahim Musliyar Bekal, Yenepoya University chancellor Y Abdulla Kunhi and others had called on then Union Minister for External Affairs S M Krishna, his deputy Shashi Tharoor, Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and others in New Delhi and convinced them to take necessary step for the commencement of the Hajj flights from Mangaluru in 2009.

Hajj Bhavan

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had promised that a state-of-the-art Hajj Bhavan would come up in Mangaluru in Mangaluru before the 2018 Hajj season. The state government has also identified a land for the construction of the building near the airport at Kenjar village. However, if the Mangaluru Airport stops operating Hajj flights, the Hajj Bhavan project will lose its significance.