The Directorate General of Indonesia's Hajj and Umrah Agency (PHU) has signed agreements with Lion Air, Garuda Indonesia, and Saudia, to participate in the country's official 2025 Hajj pilgrimage programme.

All up, the three carriers will fly direct from 13 Indonesian airports to Saudi Arabia over the Hajj period. Under the agreements, Saudia will use B777-300ERs for the flights alongside Lion Air's A330-900N aircraft. Garuda Indonesia will also use B777-300ERs, among others.

Lion Air will operate its A330neo between Padang and Banjarmasin airports and Madinah. It expects to carry over 11,600 pilgrims during this year's Hajj, which takes place in early June.

Saudia, which operates scheduled flights to Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta, is establishing a Hajj base at Surabaya to target Muslim pilgrims living in eastern Indonesia. Garuda plans to earmark 14 aircraft, including one in reserve, to Hajj operations: six of its own, two sourced from subsidiary Citilink, and six wet-leased aircraft. The flag carrier issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the wet-leased aircraft earlier this year, targeting A330 or B777 families. It plans to source the aircraft for 2.5 months starting on May 1 through July 10, 2025.

In years past, state-owed Garuda Indonesia commanded a majority market share of Hajj traffic on the Indonesia-Saudi country pair. However, in face of ongoing criticism about its operational performance during the Hajj and the cost of flights, the government, through agencies such as the PHU, has moved to reduce its market share and introduce more competition.

According to ch-aviation capacities data, Garuda Indonesia is currently the third-largest airline on the country pair measured by weekly seat capacity. The biggest is Saudia (39.08%), followed by Lion Air (33.81%), Garuda Indonesia (21.23%), and Citilink (5.88%). The PHU is concerned with monitoring and managing specific pilgrimage flights over a concentrated period of time. However, in the first week of March, the four airlines are operating a combined 74 roundtrips on the country pair, covering 11 routes.

With more than 241 million Muslims, Indonesia is the world's biggest Muslim nation. Year-round, airlines do good business on the Indonesia-Saudi Arabia country pair but the Hajj pilgrimage requires additional capacity. Government involvement aims to facilitate the flights, increase total capacity, and lower the cost.