Following
their successful completion of all stages of thepilgrimage in the Holy land of Saudi Arabia ,
theentire 1221Gambian pilgrims are reported to be in good
health and have started arriving into the country.
According to the Public Relations Officer at the Gambia International Airlines, GIA, Babucar Fatty, the first batch of pilgrims numbering 321 landed at the Banjul airport early Sunday, with the second flight expected within the next 24 hours, then the third and finally the fourth flight within days.
‘’They would come in the same order they left, example on the sequence of the flights bookings but allthe flights are within a day or soapartso you can expect all at home in the coming days,’’ he said.
M Fatty happily disclosed that none of the pilgrims died or sustained injuries and the GIA is grateful to Allah and the Gambia government and people, the Hajj Commission, and all others who worked on the Hajj programme this year.
‘ We are grateful to Allahto have concluded another successful Hajj this year as part of our mission statement which is to serve the people of the Gambia tothe best standards possible in the area of air transport,’’ Mr Fatty said.
The GIA, the national carrier, contracted Ethiopian Airlines which deployed a wide-body Boeing planes with a sitting capacity of over three hundred passengers to fly the pilgrims to and from Jeddah international airport.
