The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) held a workshop here on Monday to determine the effects of the recent major sandstorm on air traffic, with participants calling for the creation of crisis managements teams to handle such natural disasters.

The sandstorm earlier this month blanketed the capital and forced GACA to cancel all air traffic at King Khaled International Airport, stranding thousands of passengers.

Sulaiman bin Abdullah Al-Hamdan, GACA’s president, opened the one-day workshop, which included officials from various airlines.

Al-Hamdan said meetings involving all sectors of the industry were important to brainstorm ideas and prevent future mistakes. He said GACA was implementing many initiatives, including infrastructure projects to improve services.

“GACA also aims to improve the levels of courtesy in dealing with the general public and the quality of services, develop information technology-based systems that are more modern and accurate, and move away from traditional, old-fashioned ways of doing things to a fully online environment,” he said.

Abdulhakim Al-Allawi, assistant to the president for air safety, presented a timeline of the events that accompanied the sandstorm. He said the workshop was important to find solutions encountered during natural disasters.

Participants had discussions on ground operations, support services and flight operations. They said a more holistic and standardized approach was needed to deal with such events and that the public should be kept informed about developments as they occur.

They said that the lack of comprehensive, real-time information undermined their efforts to take proper decisions during the sandstorm. They urged GACA to set up a crisis management team and new departments that would deal with passengers, and ensure better cooperation with the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment.

Participants also suggested that members of the industry help draw up a handbook on how to deal with such crises, which would cover the flow of weather information, and drills on shutting down airports.

Another recommendation was for GACA to set up a call center that would serve as a communication node for all parties, in addition to making extensive use of social media to relay updated information to the public.

The participants pointed out that national carriers and airports must have their own crisis management plans that would include preparing for freak weather conditions, outline the factors and circumstances under which flights must be delayed, grounded or canceled, and detail the persons and departments to whom authority should be delegated to make such decisions.

They also recommended that the Kingdom’s international airports be equipped to use Category Two Instrument Landing Systems to improve the chances for safe takeoffs and landings.