The crisis of delays and irregularities of some flights for passengers and pilgrims at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah in recent days has begun to stabilize relatively after the intervention of many sectors for support and assistance, with the intensification of the activities of Civil Defense Teams, Half Red and other service sectors to support and serve pilgrims until their launch, while Minister of Transport and Logistics M. Saleh Al-Jasser; Establish an urgent investigative commission, chaired by the Chairman of the General Authority of Civil Aviation; membership in a number of bodies; To discover the causes of the crisis, to investigate what happened, to identify the culprits, to take the necessary legal measures and technical treatments to maintain the quality of services provided to travelers and pilgrims and to raise the results and recommendations to the maximum within a week of its date.
Relevant authorities continue to facilitate the pilgrims’ journey from King Abdulaziz International Airport to Jeddah, with an average of 40,000 pilgrims per day from the airport to countries around the world, with the support of officials from all relevant sectors at the airport and operational. authorities.
Northern Terminal The Deputy Chairman of the National Committee for Hajj, Umrah and Visiting Activities, a member of the Saudi Travel and Tourism Association Hani Al-Amiri, attributed the crisis to 8 main reasons, including the first: the high concentration of departures in the northern halls; Given that it is dedicated to the arrival and travel of foreign airlines, in which there has been no development in recent years, showing the importance of forming a technical committee for testing and inspection of equipment and devices used in the terminal.
He said: The second reason is the closure of the pilgrim building, which was used to remove pilgrims and relieve pressure on other halls, contrary to the usual period of each year, and the third: flight delays to arrive in the Kingdom to transport pilgrims and consequently delays in their departure.
The waiting period Al-Amiri stated that the fourth reason is the waiting period of 5 hours minimum, according to the circulars of the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, while at international airports it does not exceed a maximum of two hours, even. at Kingdom airports, which causes the presence of a larger number of hall capacity, increasing by a percentage. Greater when one or more flights are delayed, which keeps its passengers stuck in the terminal between the influx of other numbers for subsequent flights, and fifth: the Eid holiday, which caused a significant shortage of employees civil aviation and airlines for a period considered as the peak of work and departure, in addition to the poor functioning of airports amid failure to organize entry at the terminal, entry is assumed. be limited to those with confirmed reservations, and the registration of a larger number of those logical as waiting passengers and their non-accommodation by airlines, in addition to the presence of a large number of passengers wishing to leave, who hold tourist , commercial or personal visas and therefore do not merge Under a regulatory body and not affiliated with any coordinating body.
Capacity.Al-Amir demanded that the hall for pilgrims and pilgrims of Umrah be opened with its full operational capacity and not in a simple way, which helps in greater overcrowding, as well as the formation of a commission for coordination with airlines and the Umrah service companies they provide. ground services to plan delayed flights and coordinate the provision of facilities for delayed pilgrims Close Building, an investor in the Hajj and Umrah and hotels sector, Majid Adel Raboui, said: One of the most important reasons that led to the overcrowding is the closure of the pilgrimage building and the transfer of departures to the north hall, which does not fit the large number of departures, especially on peak days, as the number of umrah visas exceeded 500,000 visas during the Ramadan season and all. want to leave in the last days of Ramadan and in the first days of Eid, in addition to violating some umrah companies by sending pilgrims well ahead of their flight time, up to more than 10 hours.Airplane, in coordination with airlines to facilitate pilgrims and luggage reception according to working mechanisms to facilitate pilgrims before Arrival of pilgrims at the airport, which helps reduce the accumulation of pilgrims at the airport, in addition to adding two weeks after the end of the visa so that Umrah companies not to be fined and to have enough time for the pilgrims to leave.
Promoting the airport, and the investor in the Hajj and Umrah sector, engineer Abdullah Qazi, said: The Umrah companies, in coordination with the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, are committed to promoting the airport with an accurate and electronic system, and this system does not allows the bus to arrive at the airport before the scheduled travel time, and the number of Umrah companies is more than 500 companies operating in this sector, and if any errors occur, they are individual by several people or companies, do not touch to the whole system and are not taken into account in measuring the problem and its magnitude, but the vast majority of umrah companies are committed to the instructions of the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah.
Delayed flights. ” Kadi ”added: The problem is due to the presence of delayed flights, and flights that have been delayed for a surprisingly long time and therefore the pilgrims, whose flights have been delayed, wait at the airport, which leads to overcrowding, and The pilgrim who arrived on time for his flight does not arrive inside the airport due to overcrowding, except for the lack of services in the north hall, including vehicles, employees and workers, which do not match the season for the month of Ramadan. The third problem is that the hall intended for pilgrims should be the hall of pilgrims, which is a large hall, convenient and convenient and suitable for numbers, especially in the current season.
He stressed that the solutions lie in increasing the number of workers and services provided in the northern halls, the transfer of flights that can be transferred to the city of pilgrims and the formation of a commission to study the problem and take the necessary measures to avoid it in . the next season of Hajj.