SANA’A (Dispatches) – The first direct flight between Yemen and Saudi Arabia in nearly seven years has taken more than 270 Yemenis from the capital Sana’a to Jeddah, signaling easing tensions between the two countries.
The flight by Yemenia – also known as Yemen Airways – took place Saturday evening and carried Yemeni Muslims embarking on the annual Islamic pilgrimage of Hajj in the Saudi city of Mecca.
The flight is one of five that will carry pilgrims heading to Islam’s holiest site from Sana’a’s international airport, according to Khalid al-Shayyef, head of the Yemeni airport.
He further explained the flight was the first of five transferring this year’s Yemeni pilgrims from Sana’a to Saudi Arabia for the annual ritual of Hajj, the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca required once in a lifetime of every financially-able and physically-fit Muslim, according to an AP report.
A Saudi-led military coalition closed off Sana’a’s airport in August 2016 as part of an air and sea blockade on Yemen.
In addition to the Saturday’s flight, two more departures have been scheduled for Monday and Wednesday, while officials from Yemen’s popular Ansarullah resistance movement and Saudi authorities were working on scheduling two more flights, al-Shayyef noted as cited in the report.
Thousands of Yemeni pilgrims travel by bus to Saudi Arabia, or to the southern port city of Aden – an arduous 12-hour journey due to checkpoints – where they can fly to the neighboring country.
“We can no longer bear the burdens and hardships of traveling to Aden,” Akram Mohamed Murshid, one of the pilgrims boarding the plane, said.
“Hopefully, the blockade will end and the airport will remain open. We are very happy and relieved, and I cannot describe the feeling,” said Mohammad Askar, another Mecca-bound pilgrim.
The Yemeni Minister of Public Works and Roads, Ghaleb Mutlaq, said nearly 200 flights would be needed to accommodate the 24,000 people who wanted to take part in the highly spiritual pilgrimage.

Pilgrims Leave Gaza to Mecca

Meanwhile, over the past week, four batches of pilgrims departed from the Gaza Strip for Saudi Arabia to perform the rituals of Hajj.
About 6,600 people from Gaza and the West Bank left for Mecca to perform Hajj for 2023.
According to the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, the pilgrims travelled from Gaza during a four-day span, with 900 pilgrims in the first group, 900 on the second, 600 in the third, and 500 pilgrims on the fourth day.
Those travelling from the West Bank will get to Saudi Arabia through Jordan, while residents of the Gaza Strip went through Egypt.
Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it has received more than one million pilgrims so far for this year’s Hajj pilgrimage.
“Around 1,150,000 pilgrims have already arrived in Saudi Arabia for Hajj,” Mohammed al-Bijawi, undersecretary of the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, told the state-run Al-Ekhbariya TV channel.
“The influx of pilgrims continues to increase amid continuous preparations,” he added.
The oil-rich kingdom expects to receive more than two million Muslim pilgrims for Hajj this year.