By NNN-Bernama,
Kuala Lumpur : The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) has targeted to evacuate 1,211 Malaysians from Egypt to Jeddah on Saturday, said RMAF chief Gen Rodzali Daud.
He said so far, three aircraft had evacuated 611 Malaysian students from Cairo and Alexandria.
“The three aircraft had taken off again to bring another 600 students,” he told reporters at the RMAF base here today.
As of Saturday morning, a total of 2,006 Malaysians have been evacuated from Egypt, using the three aircraft, as well as those owned by Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia.
The figure comprised 611 people (RMAF), Malaysia Airlines (1,086) and AirAsia (309).
Rodzali said, among challenges faced were congestion at the Jeddah International Airport, obtaining ground support and waiting for their turn to refill.
“It takes up to two hours to get one’s turn to refill,” he said. “If this can be addressed, we will be able to take out up to 1,800 people in 24 hours,” he said.
Rodzali said, despite shortcomings, ‘Ops Piramid’ was on a smooth pace, and hoped all Malaysians would be able to return home by Feb 12.
“Our aircraft are in good condition and the crew, in high spirits,” he said.
Meanwhile, RMAF operations commander Lieutenant-General Ackbal Abdul Samad said the Hercules C-130 aircraft would be able to carry out up to three flights daily.
“Each of the aircraft is able to carry out up to 21 flights a week, carrying about 200 people at a time,” he told Bernama when contacted, adding that the flight distance between Cairo and Egypt was about 1,217km.
Earlier in CAIRO, RMAF mission’s chief Colonel Abdul Mutalib Wahab said RMAF planned to mount nine daily flights from Egypt to Jeddah, using three C-130 military transport aircraft to evacuate Malaysian students in the crisis-torn
country.
He said the aircraft could carry up to 200 people in each flight, enabling the air force to evacuate up to 1,800 people daily.
The RMAF would carry evacuation flights at eight-hour intervals until the mission was completed, he said.
The air force started evacuation flights out of Cairo and Alexandria on Friday after resolving numerous issues, including landing rights at the two airports.
The first flight took off from Jeddah at 3.55pm local time and returned at 7pm.
Deputy Foreign Minister Senator Kohilan Pillay said the operation to evacuate Malaysians from Cairo today was on target, with at least 3,000 people evacuated daily.
In a related development, National Security Council secretary Mohamed Thajudeen Abdul Wahab said up to 12 aircraft would be used to speed up the evacuation process.
He added that AirAsia planned to increase the number of aircraft for the operation.
“We are running against time,” he said, adding that he expected up to 4,000 Malaysians to be evacuated to Jeddah on Saturday.
Mohamed Thajudeen said the navy’s auxiliary ship, Bunga Mas 5, had arrived at the Cairo port and was put on standby.