Kaduna pilgrims comply with luggage policy

From Mohammad Ibrahim, in Makkah

As pilgrims begin their journey home after completing this year’s hajj, Kaduna state pilgrims have complied with the luggage policy following strict enforcement of the 32 kg approved officially by Flynass airline in the Kingdom.

It was gathered that any main luggage that exceeded 32 kg was been rejected by the staff of the airlines, whose duty was to weight the luggage before being conveyed into the plane.

The state Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board has already warned its pilgrims against excess luggage, saying the foreign airline, Flynass Air  will not carry any luggage that exceeds the officially approved 32 kg for main luggage and 8kg for hand luggage.

“Each pilgrim is entitled to 32 kg of main luggage, 8 kg of hand luggage only. The board is strongly advising all its pilgrims to strictly comply with this policy,” a memo signed by the board management was made available to pilgrims.

Peoples Daily, who visited where the luggage were measured mostly in front of pilgrims hotels in Makkah, discovered that the exceeded luggage were rejected until the owner reduced it to approved 32 kg.

Although, it was learned that the airlines out of sympathy decided to add few more kilos on the luggage, for instance, any luggage that weighed 32 to 36 kg is allowed into the plane.

Some of the pilgrims who spoke with Peoples Daily commended the airline for the gesture while some still believed the airline shouldn’t have enforced the policy.

Alhaji Sale Jahun, from Chikun Local government, said he actually felt bad with the way the airline was strict on the luggage policy “ majority of us are new pilgrims and we have people to give gifts to which was why we bought so many things; my luggage weight 47 kg until I was force to reduced it. Many pilgrims lost their items in the process,” he said.

On whether he was aware of the 32 kg for main luggage and 8 kg for hand luggage policy he said “ I am aware but the truth is we don’t have the scale to measure our luggage in our rooms or in the hotels, and it was after we finished shopping that we discovered it weighed above the approved 32 kg,” he said.

He appealed to the board management to increase the luggage to at least 40 kg for the main luggage.

Another pilgrim from Makarfi Local government, Sanusi Yahaya commended the airline for increasing the kg to 36kg, saying that has really helped them, if not the loses will have been too much for the pilgrims.

The interesting aspect of the luggage issue was the way the Kaduna pilgrims were rushing to weigh their luggage individually before the arrival of the officials weighing the luggage which showed total compliance to the policy by most of them.

“We just have to comply because the airline officials were really serious about the 32 kg thing. You can see the way we are busy weighing the luggage before they arrive”, a pilgrim seen weighing his luggage, said.