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Alhaji Halidu Haruna, spokesperson for the National Hajj Committee, (NHC) has said the Committee had worked hard to beat the October 29 deadline for the closure of airports in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He said this was the result of the swift response to a notice and a warning sent from the Saudi authorities to the NHC that all airports of the Kingdom would be closed on the said date. Alhaji Haruna said before the arrival of the notice, the NHC under the Chairmanship of Alhaji Alhassan Bennie, had already finished with its preparations to meet the deadline. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, Alhaji Haruna said the NHC received 4,300 applicants and had so far finished with their requests for visas, accommodation and flight, adding that, �anyone who does not go to Mecca to perform his or her religious rites this year, may have not paid their monies to the National Hajj Committee.� Alhaji Haruna explained that lessons learnt from past Hajj preparations prompted the Hajj Committee to facilitate this year�s processes more efficiently to make it successful. He said 14 EgyptAir flights were scheduled to fly all the pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. �It started from October 14 to 24,� he said. �We anticipated a shortage and requested for another two flights and extended our date to October 26.� Alhaji Haruna expressed appreciation to the Government, the Embassy of the Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Hajj Agents Association of Ghana and all organisations that contributed to the success of this year�s Hajj preparations. He was, however, not happy that some Hajj Agents who had taken monies to process documents for some of the pilgrims had issued dud cheques to the NHC only to slow down the process and appealed to passengers who intended to performed the Hajj next year to pay their monies to genuine agents.