SPANISH charter airlines are cashing in on a lack of regional aircraft to meet the heavy seasonal demand of Muslim pilgrims wanting to fly to the holy cites of Saudi Arabia from eastern Asia.
One of the biggest is Orbest, part of the Orizonia travel group, which is scheduled to carry about 65,000 passengers out of Indonesia alone in the last quarter of the year. Last year, the company handled 14,000 passengers.
“It’s proving to be a good business, and one which doesn’t go away,” said a spokeswoman for the Palma-based group, formerly known as Iberworld.
The routes started when the Indonesian national carrier Garuda realised it did not have enough aircraft capacity to handle passengers travelling to Saudi Arabia between October and December.
Conveniently for Spanish airlines, “those dates coincide with the low season in the European holiday market,” said the spokeswoman.
The tie-up with Garuda gives Orbest access to Indonesia, the country with the world’s biggest Muslim population.
This year, the company has scheduled 217 flights with two 388-seat Airbus A330 aircraft flying out of Adi Sumarmo in central Java and Pandang in Sumatra. Their destination is Jeddah, the second largest city in Saudi Arabia.
At least two other Spanish airlines, Pullmantur Air and Mint Airways, are involved in Muslim pilgrimage flights from Asia, a market estimated to have been worth around 40 million euros (US$53.8 million) in 2010.
Last year, Pullmantur was the leader, handling some 25,000 Muslim pilgrims from Indonesia and Bangladesh, while Mint carried around 5,000 from India.
It is estimated that up to five million pilgrims travel to Mecca each year.
