Overview
- Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wrote to the Union Civil Aviation Minister on Monday seeking urgent intervention to have checked baggage carried on the same flights or airlifted to Srinagar.
- The Ministry of Minority Affairs says a NOTAM for runway maintenance reduced Srinagar’s usable runway length and forced Akasa return flights to route via Ahmedabad with strict payload limits.
- Under the current plan only about 5 kg of checked baggage per pilgrim is being flown onward from Ahmedabad while the remaining roughly 30 kg is being sent by road, creating multi-day delivery delays.
- The delays have hit elderly pilgrims hardest and disrupted customary post-Haj distributions of Zamzam water and dates, prompting visible anger and protests in Jeddah and Mecca.
- MoMA and the J&K Haj Committee say the measures were taken for flight safety and that remaining luggage should arrive within days, and officials now face pressure from the J&K government to secure same-flight carriage or an airlift.