Srinagar, May 13: Hajj flights will resume from Srinagar airport on Wednesday.
The first batch of 178 pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir left for Saudi Arabia on 4 May for the annual Hajj. Since then, no flights could be operated. As many as seven flights of the Hajj 2025 pilgrims scheduled to leave on 7 May and 12 May were cancelled.
Shujaat Ahmad Qureshi, executive officer of the Jammu and Kashmir Haj Committee, told reporters that Haj flights from Srinagar will restart on 14 May as per schedule.
“There will be three flights on 14, 15 May as per schedule, while a new schedule will be announced for the seven flights which were cancelled,” Qureshi said.
As many as 3,622 pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir, and 242 pilgrims from Ladakh are performing the Hajj pilgrimage. Srinagar International Airport was scheduled to operate 11 Hajj 2025 flights between 4 and 15 May.
The flight operations were suspended from Srinagar airport on 7 May after India targeted terror infrastructure at nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in Operation Sindoor. The Operation was launched in retaliation for the April 22 terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
The decision to reopen airports and routes was taken after the Indian Air Force (IAF) confirmed that there were “no activities” in the border areas in the night intervening Sunday and Monday. While most of these airports resumed operations some airlines, including Indigo and Air India cancelled flight operations from Srinagar and other airports on 13 May.
This year, Hajj is expected to take place from June 4 to June 9, 2025, depending on the sighting of the moon, marking the beginning of Zil-Hajj, the 12th month of the Islamic calendar. Pilgrims began their journey to Saudi Arabia from different cities in April.