Sarawak aims to become regional umrah hub

KUCHING: Sarawak is set to become a regional umrah hub for pilgrims from Borneo to travel to Saudi Arabia.

State Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah (pic) said the Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) was working with ATS Global Travel and Charter Sdn Bhd on the Kuching Umrah Gateway initiative.

He said the first flight was scheduled to take off on Aug 29 from here to Jeddah via Kuala Lumpur.

"We will start with one weekly flight in the first phase from August to October.

"In future we plan to increase it to five flights a week, subject to approval from Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca) for direct flights from Kuching," he told a press conference here on Wednesday (June 28).

Abdul Karim said the initiative was expected to help some 230,000 pilgrims from Malaysia, Kalimantan, Brunei and southern Philippines to perform the umrah over the next six years.

"This is a big market which will have the spin-off effect of bringing in more visitors to Sarawak.

"An added attraction as part of the package will be the opportunity to experience Kuching before or after the umrah," he said.

Abdul Karim also said his ministry was now working on feeder flights from regional destinations to Kuching to support the hub initiative.

He said he was in Jakarta recently for discussions with a subsidiary of Garuda Airlines on flying to Kuching.

"Once Sarawak's own airline is approved, it will also support the hub," he added.

ATS chairman Datuk A Aziz Ahmad said the company was in the process of securing approval from Gaca for landing rights from Kuching.

He said this would enable direct flights from Kuching to Jeddah, planned to start in October.