Muhammad Abid, general manager of KAIA, said the decision to change the price and lengthen the drop-off time was made following a study ordered by Prince Fahd bin Abdullah, assistant minister for Civil Aviation Affairs.
He added that the timing will be done through an automatic system.
The General Authority for Civil Aviation announced last year that parking at the airport would be available for SR5 per hour and that motorists would be allowed to wait for 10 minutes at the drop-off area, a decision that was criticized by members of the public and the media.
“The new decision was made as a response to the public. We want visitors to benefit from the discount and not abuse the system by waiting outside the car parks,” said Abid.
Abid, who took reporters on a tour of the new areas allocated for passengers at the airport, said that no expansions will take place at the current terminals and that all construction will now take place at the new airport which will begin functioning after three years and will be able to handle 30 million passengers a year.
He added that the airport has been receiving complaints at its call center number (920011233) with people complaining of bad service, and lack of cleanliness in bathrooms and waiting rooms.
“We will try our best to work out things and at the same time we call on all not to misuse the airport facilities. People unfortunately leave garbage behind and keep the toilets messy. They also carry heavy luggage, which damages our equipment. We hope they stick to the 32 kg limit,” he added.
Answering an Arab News question about passengers waiting at airports for long hours, he said that this is the responsibility of the Umrah groups, which want to reduce their expenses by bringing passengers to the airport well before their flights. “There are set punishments for these agencies that are applied during Haj and we are hoping to have that during the Umrah season as well. These punishments include banning these agencies from carrying passengers,” said Abid.
He added that they are attempting to reduce the pressure on the airport by transferring flights carrying substantial numbers of pilgrims to the Haj Terminal which he said is able to process 27,000 passengers a day.
Answering a question about taxi drivers who charge airline passengers extortionate sums, Abid said a prepaid system is to be introduced in which passengers can collect taxi tickets from within the airport and get taxis for a fixed price.
