SAUDIA BLAMES AVIATION AUTHORITY FOR CHAOS DURING UMRAH

Officials from Saudi Arabian Airlines (SAA) have blamed the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) for the poor organization and breakdown of systems at the Jeddah airport that has recently caused widespread chaos and lengthy delays of flights for Umrah pilgrims and visitors. They accused GACA, which is responsible for infrastructure at King Abdul Aziz International Airport, of projecting a poor image of the country's aviation sector with the ways airline operation and passengers facilitation are being handled. They therefore called for government's urgent intervention  to prevent a "complete collapse" of systems for passengers, including luggage transportation, security and issuing of air tickets. They said if the systems fail then all air traffic at the airport could come to a standstill. The officials also raised concerns about cargo, reservations, air-conditioning at the terminals and employees' offices, cleaning, plane parking and sound systems for announcing the arrival and departure of flights. In response, Khaled Al-Khabiri, GACA's Spokesman, said he needed more time to reply to the allegations. Officials of SAA  said nearly 240 international and local flights are affected or disrupted on a daily basis. The officials accused GACA of not responding to their demands to provide the necessary mechanisms and machinery and the suitable infrastructure to operate the airport effectively. They drew attention to the poor conveyor belt system for carrying luggage from inside the terminals to the security zones. They claimed that the authority imported these machines from an Asian country because of the low cost, without any quality considerations. The conveyor machines have weak internal generators, they claimed. According to them the conveyor belts break down so often that SAA has to provide 45 workers to intervene in case of any sudden breakdown, which happens on a daily basis, alleging that these machines cannot be maintained properly because spare parts are difficult to find and takes weeks to source from overseas. They claimed that the security machines at the airport, the metal detectors, work slowly and imprecisely because they are based on old technology which often result in officials inspecting nine out of 10 items, causing further delays. Other world class airports have sophisticated machinery, they said. They said about 100 passengers miss their flights on a daily basis because of the poor security system, resulting in great financial losses that have to be borne by GACA. Passengers plight and Regular breakdown of conveyer belt. They listed the shortfall in the operations of GACA Iin the following order: Poor air-conditioining at the terminals,Security check system not proper,Unclean lounges and toilets,Mismanagement in tackling rush fallout,Passengers missing their flights and Late departure of flights. By Saud Al-Barakati