19SAB08 Traffic Increase During Hajj

Safety Bulletin

19SAB08 24 July 2019 East/West Traffic increases over Africa during Hajj Pilgrimage season Note: This bulletin is based on the OpsGroup Briefing, Africa: Hajj 2019 Routes in Operation by David Mumford, 16 July, 2019.

WHAT ARE HAJJ ROUTES?

Every year, millions of pilgrims travel to Mecca and other religious sites in Saudi Arabia – and this changes the predominant traffic flow over the African continent. ATC in the most affected FIRs put standard routings in place to help flow that traffic.

Normally, traffic is very north-south predominant, with Europe-Africa flights being the main flow. When Hajj operations start up, a good amount of traffic starts operating east-west (i.e. Africa-Saudi Arabia and vice versa), and this is something to be aware of when cruising along at FL330 with spotty HF comms.

In addition to the normal (IATA Inflight Broadcast Procedure (IFBP)) on 126.9, keep an eye out for a much higher amount of crossing traffic in the coming months.

The affected FIRs are: Algiers, Accra, Brazzaville, Dakar, Jeddah, Kano, Khartoum, N’Djamena, Niamey, Roberts, and Tripoli.

The Hajj routings are contained in this ASECNA AIP Supplement:

https://ifalpa.org/media/3406/hajj-flights.pdf

Please see page 2 of this document for Hajj Map.

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19SAB08

Safety Bulletin

Hajj Map, OpsGroup Briefing

©2019 The International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations. This publication is provided for information purposes only, in all cases pilots should follow their company’s guidance and procedures. In the interest of flight safety, reproduction of this publication in whole or in part is encouraged. It may not be offered for sale or used commercially. All reprints must credit IFALPA.

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