Overcrowding causes chaos at Jeddah airport

WRONG flight schedules at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport (KAIA), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, have been blamed for the chaos being faced by stranded hajj pilgrims.
Over 4.5 million pilgrims from all over the world took part in the yearly hajj exercise and the population explosion this year overstretched the facilities put in place by the Saudi Arabia government for the exercise.
Between Friday and Saturday, the airport was overcrowded due to the influx of pilgrims from Mecca, and a high ranking Saudi Arabian Airlines official has blamed the development on Hajj service providers who have poorly thought out plans to bring departing passengers from Mecca to the airport.

Abdullah Al-Ajhar, who is the Assistant Director General of Saudi Arabian Airlines, said: “The crowding and build-up of pilgrims returning to Gulf countries and domestic destinations at KAIA on Saturday and Friday was caused by errors in the schedules set up to bring departing pilgrims to the airport. Because of the errors of Hajj service providers, Saudi Arabian Airlines has had to reschedule its general flights and prepare an alternate plan to ferry pilgrims.”
Al-Ajhar, who was quoted by a local Saudi newspaper, Arab News, dismissed postings on some websites that Kuwait had sent an aircraft to transport Kuwaiti pilgrims as baseless, adding: “The Kuwaiti and other pilgrims returned in alternate flights operated by Saudi. I do not know of any flights from any Gulf country arriving here to take out pilgrims who have been waiting at KAIA for 20 hours,” he said, adding that he had no comment over false reports.
He further said: “I will affirm that we are dealing with more than half a million pilgrims flying on both domestic and regional flights. I do not rule out occurrence of mistakes, but we are trying our best to correct errors that have occurred and to normalise matters at the earliest.”
Several websites have been carrying reports that Kuwait and the UAE transported pilgrims returning to their respective countries on their own planes after pilgrims were left waiting at Jeddah airport for over 15 hours.
A UAE newspaper recently criticised the quality of services at KAIA and said that many pilgrims had to seek medical assistance from their respective Hajj missions.
However, sources at the airport said medical centres in the airport - staffed by 600 doctors, nurses and support workers - have been providing all types of medical help to returning pilgrims. Meanwhile, outbound pilgrims are taking their own precautions not to miss flights.
An Egyptian Hajj group had come to KAIA’s South Terminal, well over six hours, prior to check-in and camped at the airport.
“But our efforts were of no use as the scheduled flight was delayed,” said the team leader, who did not wish to be named.
He added: “Though there are large crowds milling around, we are not complaining.”