KHUJAND, November 5, 2008, Asia-Plus — More than 5,000 Tajik Muslims that will participate in this year’s Hajj will be carried to Saudi Arabia by a Saudi air company, Yunus Sharipov, a chief specialist with the directorate for religious affairs (DRA) within the Ministry of Culture (MoC), said in an interview with Asia-plus.
According to him, the Saudi air company will use the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar to carry Tajik Muslims to Saudi Arabia.
“5,200 Tajik Muslim will participate in the Hajj this year,” Sharipov said, noting that 14 flights are expected to be operated and the 15th one will be the standby flight.
The flights will be conducted from Dushanbe and Khujand – 11 from Dushanbe and 3 from Khujand. “The aircraft will carry up to 360 pilgrims simultaneously,” the DRA official said. The first flight is supposed to be conducted on November 17 and the last one on November 30.
Sharipov noted that 1,412 residents of Sughd, including 595 women, will participate in the Hajj this year.
We will recall that the DRA collects applications and all fees and makes all flight and hotel arrangements. This year, persons that applied for the Hajj deposited approximately US$3,000. According to the DRA, they deposited funds through the head office Agroinvestbonk in Dushanbe and its branches in the provinces.
The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar was the third widebody passenger jet airliner to enter operation, following the Boeing 747 and the McDonnell Douglas DC-10. Like the DC-10, the TriStar is a three-engine jet airliner. Between 1968 and 1984, Lockheed manufactured a total of 250 TriStars. The design featured a twin-aisle interior with a maximum of 400 passengers.
