Special Service and Features
Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs Shri George Kurian flags off first Short Haj flight from Cochin International Airport
Posted On:
17 MAY 2026 4:41PM by PIB Thiruvananthpuram
Kochi, 17 May 2026: Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Shri George Kurian today flagged off the first-ever Short Haj flight from Cochin International Airport under the newly introduced Short Haj Package for Haj 2026 launched by the Haj Committee of India (HCoI).
Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs Shri George Kurian said that the Short Haj programme had been introduced taking into consideration the requests received from pilgrims over the years, particularly from working professionals and businesspersons seeking a shorter duration of stay. He expressed hope that the initiative would prove beneficial and that more pilgrims would avail themselves of the facility in the coming years.
Introduced for the first time this year, the Short Haj Package has been designed based on feedback received from pilgrims, particularly working professionals and businesspersons, who sought an option to return early after completion of the core Haj rituals. Under this category, 10,000 pilgrims will undertake Haj with a reduced stay of approximately 20 days in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), compared to the regular Haj duration of 40–45 days.
Today’s flight from Cochin marked the commencement of the Short Haj programme for Haj 2026. Pilgrims travelling under this category are scheduled to return by June 5, 2026.
The facility is being operated from seven embarkation points across the country — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin and Ahmedabad.
The embarkation point-wise allocation of pilgrims under the Short Haj Package is as follows:
|
Sl. No.
|
Embarkation Point
|
Number of Pilgrims
|
|
1.
|
Chennai
|
772
|
|
2.
|
Delhi
|
2394
|
|
3.
|
Mumbai
|
3042
|
|
4.
|
Bengaluru
|
1793
|
|
5.
|
Cochin
|
979
|
|
6.
|
Hyderabad
|
1614
|
|
7.
|
Ahmedabad
|
244
|
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(Release ID: 2262003)
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