Saudia has launched the largest single airlift in its history, mobilising a working fleet of 160 aircraft and more than one million seats to move pilgrims from 145 destinations into the Kingdom for Hajj 2026. The operational window opened in mid-May and runs in two phases — arrivals and departures — across roughly 75 days, with rituals officially beginning today, 25 May, in Mecca and the surrounding holy sites.
1 Million Seats, 160 Aircraft, 145 Destinations
The Saudi flag carrier confirmed that the inbound phase opened with flight SV5807, which arrived at Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport from Dhaka carrying 376 pilgrims. From that single touchdown, the operation balloons into one of the most concentrated aviation efforts on the global calendar: every available Saudia widebody — including its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, Boeing 777-300ERs and Airbus A330s — is being rotated into Hajj service alongside narrowbody A320 and A321 aircraft for regional feeders.
Saudia estimates the wider Hajj fleet will deliver more than one million seats across the 75-day arrival and departure cycle, with King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah and Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Madinah acting as the primary gateways. The airline is also operating dedicated charters for state delegations and high-volume markets where scheduled capacity alone cannot meet demand.
Makkah Route And Luggage First Take Centre Stage
For 2026, the carrier is significantly expanding two pilgrim-experience programmes. Saudia expects to serve more than 179,000 pilgrims through the Makkah Route initiative, which clears immigration and customs at the point of origin so that travellers exit Saudi Arabian airports directly onto buses bound for their accommodation. The Luggage First service, meanwhile, is set to handle roughly 330,000 bags this season, transporting checked baggage and 230,000 bottles of Zamzam water straight to hotels and camps.
Both programmes are designed to compress what is traditionally a multi-hour airport experience into something far closer to a domestic transfer, an upgrade that matters when peak-day arrivals can clear well above 100,000 passengers across the Hajj terminals.
Anchored In Vision 2030 — And A 30 Million Pilgrim Target
The 2026 operation is the latest milestone in Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 push to lift annual pilgrim and Umrah volumes to 30 million. Saudia, as the designated national carrier, is central to that target — and the airline is using this season to stress-test its new wide-body deployments, fast-track Makkah Route partnerships with additional source-country governments, and demonstrate capacity ahead of the planned addition of Boeing 787-10s and further Airbus A321XLRs in the next 18 months.
With Hajj rituals running through the final days of May, Saudia's outbound phase will dominate June, when the airline must reverse the flow and return more than a million pilgrims to their home countries on a similarly tight schedule.
Compiled from publicly available aviation news sources. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. This article is original editorial content; facts have been verified across multiple public sources.
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