DAMMAM, 4 November 2003 — Despite warnings of a possible terrorist attack, the airline industry in the Eastern Province is operating normally. No airline has canceled or suspended any flights.
Arab News contacted several airlines and they all reported “business as usual with no plans for cancellation or temporary cancellation.”
Although the airlines admit that they have fewer bookings for Eid and the winter school vacations, they say this is unrelated to recent warnings. They say that traffic on the European and American sectors declined after Sept. 11, 2001 and never returned to the level it had enjoyed prior to that date.
Travel industry sources say that the current decline in bookings for winter break and Eid holidays is primarily due to an inconvenient schedule for expats. Families often combine their Eid holidays with their children’s winter vacation and plan their annual trip home. Now since Ramadan has advanced to November and many schools will have winter breaks in the middle of December, combining vacations is no longer possible. Both travel agents and airlines say that this has greatly affected travel plans of Asian expatriates.
The airlines operating on European and American sectors say that normally traffic is high during summer and for Christmas. However, since last year traffic has been below average during the two periods. Airlines admit that compared to last year and the year before, traffic on several other sectors has improved and they hope that it will soon be back to normal.
