National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will begin to fly 83,144 Indonesian haj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia on Monday, from 10 different destinations in the country.

On Monday morning the carrier flew out the first batch of haj pilgrims via six embarkation points – Jakarta; Medan, North Sumatra; Padang, West Sumatra; Surakarta, Central Java; Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara; and Makassar, South Sulawesi).

The departure ceremony was conducted by Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Syaifuddin, Transportation Ministry air transportation acting director general Santoso, and Garuda Indonesia president director Emirsyah Satar at Pondok Gede Haj Dormitory in East Jakarta.

Meanwhile, the first batch of pilgrims from Palembang, South Sumatra, and Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, will be flown to Saudi on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.

Those from Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan and Banda Aceh, Aceh will depart on Sept. 18 and Sept. 19, respectively.

During the 2014 haj season, the carrier would send pilgrims to Jeddah and Medina from Sept. 1 and Sept. 28 and would bring them home between Oct. 9 and Nov. 6, Emirsyah said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Direct flights to Medina were only available for pilgrims who departed from the capital and Medan.

Garuda is operating 11 wide-bodied aircraft to serve pilgrims this year, including Airbus A330s, Boeing B747s and a B777-300 Extended Range (ER).

Emirsyah, however, said the number of pilgrims that the airline would fly this year would decrease from the 90,108 it had flown last year, due to a reduced quota from the Saudi Arabian government.

In a bid to improve the service for pilgrims and remove any language barriers, he said that 70 percent of 484 cabin crew members were recruited from the respective embarkation points.

“Many of the pilgrims only speak local languages,” Emirsyah said.

– JAKARTA POST