According to a Saudi senior official, the number of Umrah pilgrims has risen this year by 106 percent. Acting Director of Jeddah’s King Abdul Aziz International Airport Sameer Mira said all Umrah flights landed at the "modern" Pilgrims City close to the airport.

The number of Umrah pilgrims who arrived at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the last month reached 551,856 while the number of Umrah flights attained 3,748. Since the beginning of the Umrah season, 1,853,053 pilgrims have arrived at the Kingdom aboard 13,690 flights.

The Umrah season started in January and will finish on September 24th to enable authorities to prepare for the Hajj season in the best conditions.
The Saudi authorities are always working on improving services offered to pilgrims so that the Guests of Allah and visitors of the Prophet’s Mosque can perform their rituals with serenity.  One of the most important projects is the Makkah Monorail Project, which aims to facilitate transportation of pilgrims between the holy sites of Makkah, Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifa.

The General Authority of Civil Aviation has begun carrying out the operational plan at the airport in cooperation with all governmental agencies and airlines, ground handling, and private companies, to be able to receive the increasing numbers of airplanes.

It is expected that a large number of Hajj pilgrims would arrive at the Holy sites this year since a lot of them chose not to perform Hajj because of the deadly Influenza A H1 N1. Pilgrims from Egypt and Morocco account for the biggest surge in the number of travellers coming for Hajj and Umrah in Makkah. Big numbers of pilgrims are also coming from Algeria, Libya, Sudan, and Turkey…

During the last Hajj season, Arab health ministers had decided to forbid children, the elderly and those suffering from chronic diseases from attending the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia for fear of Influenza A H1 N1contagion.