Need for direct flight connectivity between Kolkata and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-Laid

Need for direct flight connectivity between Kolkata and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-Laid SHRI YUSUF PATHAN (BAHARAMPUR): A direct flight between Kolkata and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has been a longstanding demand from the people of West Bengal. There are direct flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune to Jeddah. Yet there are no direct flights between Kolkata, the third most populous metropolitan city and Jeddah. With over 26,000 haj pilgrims travelling to Saudi Arabia between 2022 and 2025 from West Bengal and a similarly significant number of Umrah pilgrims, direct flight connectivity becomes particularly important. Currently, flying between Kolkata and Jeddah takes over 10 hours due to layovers. This imposes significant hardships on passengers, in terms of travel time, ticket prices and overall convenience. Establishing direct flight connectivity between Kolkata and Jeddah would ease not just the travel woes of pilgrims, but also that of tourists, expatriates, workers and business travellers. Such direct flight connectivity will also cater to passengers from the broader eastern and north eastern region. Hence, I request the government to take prompt action to establish direct flight connectivity between Kolkata and Jeddah.