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Normalcy at Jeddah airport as problems addressed

By By MD HUMAIDAN JEDDAH: The south terminal of Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport ( KAIA ) slowly returned to normal on Friday after Saudi Arabian Airlines stepped into overdrive to redress the major issues that led to chaos and confusion on Thursday.

Eyewitnesses and other airport employees reported that the overcrowding at the airport, Saudia 's service and flight delay issues, and the problems of stranded Umrah pilgrims, were swiftly dealt with.

The airport authorities also repaired the baggage conveyor belt that had proven to be a factor in delaying the flights and contributing to the rush.

The national carrier operated replacement flights for delayed departures, pressed into service extra flights to compensate for the canceled ones in order to fly most of the stranded pilgrims to their destinations, and those who could not get seats on Friday were given hotel accommodation.

About 160 passengers of a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight, who had been stranded since Aug. 28, as the Pakistan-bound flight did not take off due to "technical reasons," left for Lahore late on Friday.

Essam Al-Fawaz, executive manager of the airline at the KAIA , said the passengers were given hotel accommodation during the intervening period.

Inquiries with some of the passengers showed they were transferred to hotels after they waited at the airport for over 30 hours.

A Pakistani Consulate source said the consulate made arrangements for attending to sick women and children among the passengers and also offered them medicines, food and clothes as some of them had run out of money. The consulate also opened a 24-hour cell to attend to the passengers who were at the airport or hotels due to the delay or cancellation of Saudia and PIA flights during the Eid Al-Fitr period.

The Indian consulate too said the backlog of the delayed flights to Indian cities was cleared in quick succession -- Kozhikode first and New Delhi next -- leaving no Indian passengers stranded by early Friday morning. A consulate source said things must have improved at the airport, as there were no calls for help from Indian passengers on Friday.

An official from the Egyptian mission said in Jeddah that what the passengers faced at the airport was due to the high volume of traffic of pilgrims. Most of the pilgrims from Egypt and other Middle East destinations have departed for home.

With the number of pilgrims and passengers increasing every year, Saudia conducts an yearly review of crowd management in order to be prepared and planned for the next year.

It also held workshops on how to handle passengers during peak seasons such as Ramadan. Last July the airline conducted a workshop for its staff as well as members of the National Committee for Haj and Umrah and made some recommendations.

The national carrier needs to implement some of these recommendations if they hope to avoid a repeat of this year's rush. The workshop emphasized the need for taking steps to enhance the awareness of pilgrims before they arrive in the Kingdom.

The workshop also called for activating the Taif airport to reduce the pressure on Jeddah airport during peak Haj and Umrah seasons. It also discussed the overcrowding of pilgrims in the passenger lounges, lack of customer care centers and absence of supervisors at the airport to find immediate solutions for problems.

The number of Umrah flights handled by KAIA is increasing every year. According to a report issued by the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) the airport handled 24,866 Umrah flights in 2010 compared to 21,914 flights in 2009, registering an increase of 10.2 percent. During the same period, the number of Umrah pilgrims handled by the airport rose by 7.8 percent, the report pointed out.

The total number of Umrah pilgrims rose by 14.9 percent in 2010 compared to the previous year. GACA also pointed out that there was a 6 percent increase in the volume of baggage carried by pilgrims during the same period.

In a related development, all pilgrims who had come by sea have left Jeddah Islamic Port on Friday. The majority of these pilgrims came from Egypt and Sudan. The last ship departed from the port carried 850 Egyptian pilgrims, said Capt. Saher Al-Tahlawi, director of the port.

© Arab News 2011