ISLAMABAD – Pakistan International Airline, the national flag-carrier hasdecided to temporarily add six narrow-body aircraft to its fleet from June.

PIA administration released tenders for acquiring Airbus A-320 and 737aircraft on wet lease for six months to facilitate uninterrupted operationsfor facilitating nationals

It is pertinent to mention here that the Economic Coordination Committee(ECC) had approved issuance of supplementary budget of more than onebillion rupees for Hajj operations on February 19.

Saudi Arabia had already issued more than 4.33 million Umrah visas thisyear with the largest number of pilgrims visiting the kingdom from Pakistan.

The total figure for approved visas stands at 4,338,959, of which 3,892,554pilgrims have arrived in the Kingdom, according to data provided by theSaudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah.

443,560 pilgrims are still in the country with 304,897 of them in Makkahand 138,663 in Madinah.

Most pilgrims – 3,464,929 – travelled to the Kingdom by air, while 392,632entered by land and 34,993 arrived by sea.