JEDDAH, 11 February — The Saudi Embassy in Paris yesterday intervened to end the ordeal of some 350 French pilgrims held up at Charles de Gaulle Airport in France, a high-level embassy source told Arab News.
The pilgrims have been stranded at the airport since Thursday as their flight chartered by the Greek company Electra was not authorized to take off because it had not received landing permission from Saudi authorities.
The sources said the embassy intervened after it came to know about the suffering of pilgrims at the French airport and won temporary landing permission from the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority for the Greek company.
Ahmad Al-Abdaly, Saudi charge d'affaires in France, said the embassy coordinated with the CAA to issue temporary permission to Electra to transport the pilgrims as quickly as possible. He said the pilgrims suffered due to "technical reasons" involving the Aliya Tourist Agency in Jeddah and Jamal Riyad's travel agency in Paris.
Talal Kably, director general of air transportation at the CAA, told Arab News that the authority had issued permission yesterday to Electra to operate three flights — two from Charles de Gaulle and one from Lille. He said the Greek company would operate the remaining Haj flights today or tomorrow to clear the backlog.
Kably said a representative from the Greek company was in Jeddah to complete procedures for landing permission. Permits for the remaining Haj chartered flights would be given only after knowing the number of pilgrims to be brought in by the French agency. "They should also give the Haj flight schedule and inform the type of aircraft they use," he added.
Jamal Riyad, owner of the French agency, disclosed that 1,020 pilgrims have been stranded due to the negligence of the Jeddah agency. Riyad said his agency had reached an agreement with Aliya to make arrangements to receive the French pilgrims. "But they did not fulfill part of the deal," he accused.
On his part, Tarek Hafni, manager of Aliya Travel & Tourism Company, charged that Jamal Riyad had not fulfilled the conditions of their agreement. As per the deal, the French agency was to pay the full amount eight days before takeoff of any flight, he added.
"After the transfer of 25 percent of the amount by him, we were forced to change the aircraft from DC-10 to MD-90 and the flights were rescheduled three days before takeoff and Riyad should not have sent the pilgrims to the airport," Hafni said. Aliya had to rent two MD-90 aircraft to transport the French pilgrims.
Riyad said he had received permission from the French authorities to provide its services to 8,100 pilgrims but because of some problems with the Saudi undertaker the number has been reduced to 5,200 pilgrims. He also pointed out that his agency had to pay the expenditures of the stranded pilgrims.
Riyad wondered why the CAA allowed two chartered flights with 510 French pilgrims and stopped others. Kably said Saudi Arabia would not turn back pilgrims for the faults of airline companies. He pointed out that the CAA had asked the carrier which brought the 510 pilgrims on Wednesday to pay SR30,000 in fines for violating air transportation agreement.
The Kingdom has asked airline companies to provide a bank guarantee amounting to 10 percent of the total value of one-way air tickets of pilgrims they bring in. The Saudi charge d'affaires said the Saudi Consulate in Paris had issued 8,000 Haj visas until yesterday. About 19,000 French Muslims are expected to perform Haj this year.
