The first hajj flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying 274 pilgrims left Dhaka for Jeddah by a chartered aircraft yesterday.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia formally inaugurated the hajj flight at 11:00am at the Zia International Airport.

State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Managing Director of Biman Mahmudur Rahman and Air Commodore AKM Harun Chowdhury, chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (Caab), were also present on the occasion.

Mirza Fakhrul at a press conference at the Biman headquarters at Balaka said Biman will take 2,621 ballotee and around 40,000 non-ballotee pilgrims to Jeddah by 86 flights and bring them back with

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the same number of flights.

The Biman started its hajj flights with the chartered 576-seater Boeing 747 of the Corsair, a Corsican airline, which returned on Friday. Another chartered aircraft of the Air Luxor, Airbus 330 capable of carrying 387 people, is expected to arrive at Dhaka today.

However, the Biman authorities could not confirm when the third chartered aircraft, another Boeing 747, would reach Dhaka.

Mirza Fakhrul said, "We are trying heart and soul to hire airliners." If the hiring of aircraft does not go as planned, Biman would operate its own Hajj flights trimming down several flights on international routes to accommodate the Jeddah-bound hajj pilgrims, he added.

In reply to a query, Biman Managing Director Mahmudur admitted that those two airliners were not chartered as per the rules because they had to hire them on emergency basis but the board of directors of Biman has given permission.

The ballottee pilgrims deposited $950 each while the non-ballottee pilgrims paid $1050 each.