Anyone looking up hajj embarkation points India flights wants two answers: which airports, and where the planes go. The embarkation points are the airports from which Haj Committee pilgrims board their charter flights to Saudi Arabia, and for Haj 2027 the Haj Committee of India lists 19 of them, one still awaiting clearance. Every flight from those airports goes to one of two places, Jeddah or Madinah, and comes back to the same Indian airport weeks later. That makes the Hajj network unusually easy to map: nineteen lines, two destinations, one season. It is rarely drawn out, so here it is, built from the official list.
The official list for Haj 2027
The Haj Committee of India's Guidelines for Haj 2027 list these embarkation points (Haj Committee of India, "Guidelines for Haj 2027," captured 2026-09-27):
Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Calicut, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Gaya, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kannur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Srinagar and Vijayawada.
Patna is the new name on the list, and the guidelines mark it as "subject to clearance" from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Home Affairs. Until that clearance is announced, treat Patna as proposed rather than confirmed.
The list moves from year to year. The Haj 2026 guidelines named 17 points, without Vijayawada or Patna (Haj Committee of India, "Guidelines for Haj 2026," captured 2026-09-27). The Ministry of Minority Affairs' charter tender for the same season, dated 10 September 2025, then invited bids for 18 points, with Vijayawada as the eighteenth (Ministry of Minority Affairs, "Tender Document for Haj 2026 Air Charter Operations," captured 2026-09-27). The Ministry may also consider further airports, so the 2027 list is a starting point, not a promise.
The route map, as a table
Here is the map written out. Distances are straight-line (great-circle) kilometres from each airport's reference coordinates, rounded to the nearest 10 km. Distances actually flown are usually longer, since aircraft follow published airways rather than a straight line.
| Embarkation point | Airport code | To Jeddah (JED) | To Madinah (MED) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahmedabad | AMD | 3,440 km | 3,350 km |
| Mumbai | BOM | 3,520 km | 3,470 km |
| Srinagar | SXR | 3,740 km | 3,540 km |
| Jaipur | JAI | 3,750 km | 3,610 km |
| Indore | IDR | 3,760 km | 3,670 km |
| Delhi | DEL | 3,880 km | 3,730 km |
| Kannur | CNN | 4,010 km | 4,020 km |
| Calicut | CCJ | 4,080 km | 4,100 km |
| Nagpur | NAG | 4,120 km | 4,040 km |
| Hyderabad | HYD | 4,140 km | 4,090 km |
| Cochin | COK | 4,170 km | 4,190 km |
| Bengaluru | BLR | 4,180 km | 4,180 km |
| Lucknow | LKO | 4,250 km | 4,120 km |
| Vijayawada | VGA | 4,400 km | 4,360 km |
| Chennai | MAA | 4,450 km | 4,430 km |
| Gaya | GAY | 4,670 km | 4,550 km |
| Patna (proposed) | PAT | 4,680 km | 4,550 km |
| Kolkata | CCU | 5,050 km | 4,950 km |
| Guwahati | GAU | 5,320 km | 5,180 km |
The west-coast and north-western points are closest: Mumbai and Ahmedabad are both under 3,600 km from Jeddah. The eastern points are the long legs, with Kolkata at about 5,050 km and Guwahati, the farthest, at about 5,320 km. From most points Madinah is slightly closer than Jeddah; only from the three Kerala points (Kannur, Calicut, Cochin) is Jeddah the nearer of the two. The difference is never more than about 200 km either way. Every Indian airport in the table sits on India's airport directory.
How the Haj charter flights work
Haj Committee pilgrims do not book scheduled seats. The Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Ministry of Civil Aviation make air charter arrangements, and airlines bid for them embarkation point by embarkation point (Haj Committee of India, "Guidelines for Haj 2027"). The Haj 2026 tender sets out how that works:
- Two phases. Phase I carries pilgrims from India to Saudi Arabia; Phase II brings them back.
- Non-stop. Flights are "mandatory non-stop", with exceptions only for a technical halt or force majeure such as weather or air traffic restrictions.
- Who can bid. Designated airlines of India and of Saudi Arabia, flying aircraft less than 20 years old. Seats are preferably shared in equal numbers between the two countries' airlines, and the lowest bidder for each point is allotted it.
- Srinagar is different. Only Indian designated airlines bid for Srinagar, flying direct to Jeddah or Madinah and back, with flights at Srinagar scheduled between 1100 and 1600 hours.
- Arrival mix. Airlines are asked to land most Madinah-bound pilgrims in the first week of flights, and to keep Jeddah arrivals lighter in the first week of Jeddah landings.
The tender also caps the stay in Saudi Arabia at 45 days, or 22 days on the Short Haj schedule (Ministry of Minority Affairs, "Tender Document for Haj 2026 Air Charter Operations," captured 2026-09-27). The arrival airports themselves have their own directory pages: King Abdulaziz International in Jeddah and Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz in Madinah.
Choosing an embarkation point
Applicants name two embarkation points in order of preference. The guidelines are firm that no request to change the point will be entertained afterwards, and they reserve the Ministry's right to move pilgrims to a different point if the numbers at one airport are too high or too low to run a charter economically (Haj Committee of India, "Guidelines for Haj 2027").
The shorter package narrows the map. For Haj 2027 the Short Haj package, about 20 days in Saudi Arabia for up to 10,000 pilgrims, runs only from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. The normal package is roughly 35 to 45 days.
The airfare differs by point, and it is not a simple function of distance, because each point is bid separately. The 2027 guidelines print Haj 2026 airfares, including airport charges and GST, as a reference: ₹99,882 from Ahmedabad and ₹1,06,934 from Mumbai at the lower end, and ₹1,58,309 from Srinagar and ₹1,75,709 from Vijayawada at the higher end. Guwahati, the longest leg in the table, came in lower than Vijayawada at ₹1,56,538 for the season. The guidelines call these figures reference only; the 2027 cost depends on procurement.
The Haj 2027 flight window
The guidelines give a tentative schedule: Haj air charter operations from 8 April 2027, with the last outbound flight up to 9 May 2027, and return flights from 21 May 2027 to 20 June 2027. For scale, the 2026 season began on 18 April 2026 with 1,75,025 pilgrims expected (DD News, "Haj 2026: First batch of Indian pilgrims to depart on April 18," captured 2026-09-27).
Two practical lines from the guidelines matter on the day. Reporting time at the airport is six hours before departure, and the return boarding pass is issued on the outward journey itself, with pilgrims asked to report at Jeddah or Madinah airport six hours before their flight home. Flight allotment is done by the Haj Committee, and the guidelines say it may change a flight date or timing if it has to, so the Haj Committee's notice, not a calendar estimate, is the date to plan around.
For families following a flight from home
For many families the pilgrimage has a ground crew: someone drops the pilgrim off, and someone waits for the return weeks later. Keep the embarkation airport, flight number and date from the Haj Committee's allotment where the whole family can see them, and remember the return flight lands back at the same Indian airport the pilgrim left from.
How TrackMyWings helps
TrackMyWings™ is a live flight-tracking platform in development, built for the people waiting. A private beta has been running on Android, on the Play internal testing track, since 2026-08-24, and there is no public launch date yet. Gate and status alerts and a shared family view are among the features planned for launch, aimed at the relative counting down to a return flight from Jeddah. Each embarkation airport and both Saudi arrival airports have directory pages, starting from the list of airports in India.
Questions people ask
How many Hajj embarkation points does India have for 2027? The Haj 2027 guidelines list 19, including Patna, which is marked as subject to clearance from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Do Hajj flights from India go to Jeddah or Madinah? Both. The charter flights run from each embarkation point to Jeddah or Madinah and back, non-stop except for a technical halt or force majeure.
Which embarkation point is closest to Jeddah? Ahmedabad, at about 3,440 km in a straight line, followed by Mumbai at about 3,520 km. Guwahati is the farthest, at about 5,320 km.
Sources
- Haj Committee of India, "Guidelines for Haj 2027 (1448 H)," https://hajcommittee.gov.in/uploads/circulars/178213884104Guidelines_for_Haj_2027.pdf, captured 2026-09-27
- Haj Committee of India and Ministry of Minority Affairs, "Guidelines for Haj 2026 (1447 H)," copy hosted by the Jammu and Kashmir State Haj Committee, https://www.jkshc.org/Download/guidlines-2026.pdf, captured 2026-09-27
- Ministry of Minority Affairs, "Tender Document for Haj 2026 Air Charter Operations," dated 10 September 2025, hosted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, https://www.civilaviation.gov.in/sites/default/files/2025-09/Tender%20document%20w.r.t.%20Air%20Charter%20Operations%20for%20Haj%20-%202026%20-%20regarding..pdf, captured 2026-09-27
- DD News, "Haj 2026: First batch of Indian pilgrims to depart on April 18," 17 April 2026, https://ddnews.gov.in/en/haj-2026-first-batch-of-indian-pilgrims-to-depart-on-april-18/, captured 2026-09-27
- Distances: great-circle calculation from airport reference coordinates, computed 2026-09-27
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