Flight SV781 was scheduled to take off at 11:45 a.m. local time and fly to Jeddah via stopover in Riyadh and arrive at 5:30 p.m.

The airport official added that the passengers were kept on board for more than one hour pending take-off.

An airline official said the plane came from Riyadh to Colombo on schedule with a full load of vacationers and their families. The stranded passengers are being accommodated at the Cinnamon Group of Hotels in Colombo.

“We have looked after the stranded passengers well, providing them with lunch and dinner at the Colombo airport. And now we are accommodating them in five-star hotels in Colombo for them to spend their nights comfortably,” the official said.

He also said that he could not provide information about the flight's departure.

More than 5,000 Umrah pilgrims travel from Colombo during the season.

This is the second instance of technical problems reported by a Saudia plane in as many days.

On Wednesday, Saudia Flight SV841 carrying 200 passengers on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Jeddah made an emergency landing at Chennai airport in India after pilots noticed smoke in the cockpit. The flight later continued on safely to its destination.

A Mumbai-Jeddah flight with 270 passengers on board was grounded at Mumbai airport on May 31 due to technical problems.