DAMMAM, 28 January — The authorities are serious about enforcing a ban on foreign airlines from transporting passengers by road to neighboring countries so they can fly from there to their final destinations.
In its move to curb the practice, the Ministry of Commerce is seeking a guarantee from hotels and other property owners that house airline offices in their premises to ensure that these offices comply with the regulations. The property owners in turn will have to obtain a guarantee from these airline offices that they will not issue boarding passes to passengers being transported by road to destinations outside the Kingdom.
Last Wednesday, the Presidency of Civil Aviation asked foreign airlines to stop transporting passengers by road. It has now become normal practice by various airlines to transport passengers by bus to the King Fahd Causeway, who then fly from Bahrain to their final destination. On an average day, more than 800 passengers are transported via the causeway. The airlines indulging in this practice are Gulf Air, Kuwait Airways, Qatar Airways, Indian Airlines and the Emirates.
It not only causes loss to the national carrier, Saudi Arabian Airlines, but also deprives the Kingdom of millions of riyals every month in the form of airport tax.
The Presidency of Civil Aviation took the decision on the grounds that land transportation of passengers to other countries was in contravention to a bilateral agreement between respective airlines. Many airlines were even giving a flight number to their buses operating to Bahrain. On their computer system, the bus services were shown as flights.
The PCA held that the agreement was for air traffic and not land transport, and so was illegal.
In addition to the causeway, a few airlines were carrying passengers by road to Kuwait. Passengers bound for destinations in the Indian subcontinent are being transported by road to Kuwait by Kuwait Airways. Industry sources say this practice has led to cutthroat competition among several foreign airlines and subsequently to fare undercutting.
The airlines that carry passengers by road to Manama and Kuwait have said they will adhere to the new rules. However, they added that this measure will lead to a steep hike in fares as there would be more passengers and less flights.
The airlines were unanimous in their call on authorities to adhere to an open sky policy that will allow them to operate more flights from King Fahd International Airport in Dammam.
Gulf Air, a few years ago, was operating more than 30 flights a week, but this was later reduced to seven flights a week. Qatar Airways operates three flights a week.
These airlines say that there is a big expatriate traffic from the subcontinent and the national carrier Saudia and Air-India do not have the capacity to carry the entire load.
“Therefore it is imperative that we also take a bit of the market share and if road transport is banned we should be allowed to operate more flights from KFIA,” said an official of a Gulf airline.
Meanwhile, the PCA ban has not yet been implemented and land transport of air passengers continues as usual.
