Libyans performing Umrah— a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia— during Ramadan this year, faced an unusually difficult trek to Islam’s holiest site. The absence of a ministry of tourism, a shortage of aircraft and widespread disorganization forced some pilgrims to travel the way their forefathers once did, by land.

Libyans performing Umrah— a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia— during Ramadan this year, faced an unusually difficult trek to Islam’s holiest site. The absence of a ministry of tourism, a shortage of aircraft and widespread disorganization forced some pilgrims to travel the way their forefathers once did, by land.

Muhammad Saleh and his wife could hardly wait to get to the holy land, especially since they lost two sons in the revolution. The couple had to pay almost double the required amount due to increased ticket prices. “Although it is difficult,” Saleh said, “I don’t mind it since this Umrah is so important for my family.”

But Saleh and his wife were lucky to even be able to purchase overpriced tickets.  Libyan airlines didn’t have enough aircrafts so travel agency owners like Lu’ay Bu Harrous, had losses that exceeded 100% he said, because he had to cover expenses that were supposed to have been handled by Libyan African Aviation Holding Company (LAHHC) – the owner of Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways.

Plans made in vain

Two months prior to Ramadan, Bu Harrous and more than 30 other travel agencies approached LAHHC to make reservations for Umrah performers.

Applications were approved so the travel agencies set out to complete travel procedures. After Saudi Arabia had approved to grant 20,000 visas, travel agencies started to receive Umrah performers’ applications.

According to the LAHHC schedule, 60 seats were designated for each travel agency on board of the flights in turn; while each agency were responsible for the travel of around 700 Umrah performers. Consequently problems started to emerge as the time needed to implement this schedule meant that Umrah performers would be delayed due to a low number of flights.

“We went to Libyan Airlines”, Lu’ay said, “to overcome this crisis, but they said they didn’t have aircrafts.  The LAHHC officials admitted that they were about to rent an aircraft but they didn’t have adequate funds. Therefore, we – owners of travel agencies – paid the rental fee to LAHHC.”

Lu’ay says that owners of travel agencies deposited more than a million dollars in the LAHHC account at the Libyan Foreign Bank (LFB) since the rental fee is US$ 8,000 per each hour of the flight, which takes around 16 hours to and from Saudi Arabia in addition to one hour in transit. However, LFB, according to Lu’ay, didn’t transfer the amount to Saudi Arabia, owner of the jumbo jet to be rented.

“LFB promised us to transfer the amount within a week, but the week elapsed without any transfer”, added Lu’ay. The Central Bank of Libya officials refrained from clarifying the reasons of the transfer delay.

Lu’ay is one of the owners of travel agencies who have had to bear the difference of the Libyan Airlines ticket prices, which rose from L.D. 750 to 1,050. They have also had an agreement with Saudi hotels and transferred the cost of the rooms. Each agency booked at least 30 rooms and was forced to pay for them, whether or not Umrah performers decide to stay there.  Additionally, agencies were forced to reimburse any Umrah performer, including the ticket price, if they decided to cancel.

Some agencies changed reservations to other airlines even though such changes incurred fees that cost up to US $80 per ticket. Moreover, Umrah performers would face travel times of up to 12 hours.

Who’s at fault?

The Deputy Minister of Transport, Fouzi Baltamer, said flight delays were the result of not getting permission for aircrafts to land in Saudi Arabia.

Lu’ay denied this and accused members of the National Transitional Council (NTC) of ‘piracy’ because the NTC allegedly pushed a privileged list of passengers on a flight to Saudi Arabia, ignoring all the confusion and delay already suffered by the Umrah performers’ transport process.

This prompted some passengers to file lawsuits against owners of travel agencies and even assault them, said Lu’ay.

A ministry of chaos prevention

Tourism agencies have demanded that NTC and the interim government create a ministry of tourism to deal with such problems; one reason why Libya lost its seat in the World Tourism Organization and the Arab League Council of Arab Ministers of Tourism.

Tourism agencies wonder how a state with a daily income exceeding US$ 250 million cannot manage to rent enough aircrafts for such a major event.  How the Umrah performers will actually get home, has yet to be solved.