hyderabad travel agents and airline operators have noted an unprecedented rise in the number of umrah lesser pilgrimage the greater one being haj pilgrims this year and are over booked already they forecast that an expected 60000 pilgrims from across the state will perform the pilgrimage to mecca in saudi arabia this year as against the 40000 last year flights to saudi arabia are already booked till august but umrah hopefuls are willing to wait for their ticket pilgrims usually want to perform the umrah during ramzan and they start making a beeline for visas at travel agencies and airline offices as soon as umrah visa issue dates are announced a month and a half after haj mohammed shoaib and mohammed adeeb of link travels in diwan devdi say in the last three months alone 1200 umrah pilgrims have travelled to saudi arabia from our agency passengers are flying in large numbers in spite of the stringent visa regulations imposed by the saudi government because of the high demand almost all major international airlines are booked at least for the next two months only families and men above forty years of age are allowed to make the pilgrimage they inform mir farkunda khan from alton travels agrees that this year has witnessed a sharp increase in the number of pilgrims he says that all travel agents design packages for pilgrims that include visa stamping airline tickets and accommodation however there are many who live with relatives people are giving up vacations in western countries such as the us and uk for umrah he says travel agents attribute the surge in pilgrims to the lifting of the cap in issuing visas to indian citizens two years ago agents say that after an agreement has been reached with the agents in saudi arabia and india stamping is a matter of only four days currently 45 flights per week operate from hyderabad to jeddah via mumbai that carry pilgrims and regular travellers only two of these flights are operated by the national carrier air india travel agents rue that most seats are taken up by passengers from mumbai leaving only close to 15 per cent of seats for travellers embarking at hyderabad representations by the international air transport association iata members in hyderabad to air india officials for additional flights from hyderabad to jeddah have fallen on deaf ears they say m iftekhar ahmed from saudi arabian airlines branch at hill fort road says that religious tourism now is like never before this is the first time we have witnessed such a demand the need is such that i had to send requests to the head office for an extra flight in addition to the five flights per week the 341 seats on all our planes are completely booked till the last week of august since january this office has issued close to 3200 tickets apart from the lifting of the cap on visas the expansion of the mosque area and the low