JEDDAH // The first thing a traveller arriving at King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah encounters is Bedouins waiting at the arrival gate, shouting "Taxi el habib?" meaning "Do you want a taxi, dear one?"
Things changed in May, however, when the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) prohibited any car to park outside of the paid parking lots. Motorists now will have only 10 minutes to drop passengers or face a charge of 5 riyal per hour. Further, people coming to the arrival area now will have to park their cars and pay up to 5 riyals (Dh4.9) per hour. The decision has angered thousands of airport visitors who consider the regulations unjust because they are accustomed to picking up people without paying any charges.
"I've came a long way to drop off my son to the airport and it's unfair for me to pay 5 riyals for less than five minutes," an angry Bedouin shouted at Mohammad Al-Haddad, the director of GACA business development who was taking reporters for a tour late last month. "If you are coming to drop your son, you should have gone to the departure area not to the arrival," Mr Haddad said. "You guys don't care about people like us. You have your cars parked for free at the airport somewhere under a covered parking lot," the man said.
"Well, you will be surprised that my car is parked as far as yours," Mr Haddad replied. The old man smiled and left with other Bedouins who were watching the exchange. "This is only one example of people who are not willing to pay the money and resisting any improvement we are trying to make in the airport," GACA's spokesman Khalid al Khaybari said. "To develop and maintain the airport we need money and to have money we need to start charging people," he said. "Nothing will be free at the airport."
The authority is under a deadline to generate enough income to pay all its expenses by 2015. The government cuts the airport's budget by 10 per cent a year. Jeddah airport is the gateway to Mecca for more than 2 million travelers coming to perform the Hajj and another 4 million who come to perform the year-round ritual of Umrah. The authority built a new hall dedicated for Umrah passengers. It has restaurants, coffee shops and separate prayer areas for men and women.
Residents of Jeddah, including Bedouins who migrate from neighboring suburbs and villages, earn extra income by providing transportation for pilgrims although it is against the law. Jeddah's municipality said in a 2009 study that the labour market is out of balance because expatriates, rather than local residents, hold 82 per cent of the jobs. Developing the parking lots has been a good move, according to the authority. It has spent 29 million riyals (Dh28.4m) to develop and expand the southern and northern parking lots with a private contractor, al Mosbah Co. The company will be the sole operator of the lots.
After developing the southern terminal parking, its capacity increased from 2,962 to 4,315 spaces, said Ahmed al Mosbahi, general manager of Al Mosbah. "We've eliminated the traffic jam that people experienced at the airport and now everyone can go in and out in less than five minutes," he added. About 59 percent of people coming to the airport to drop passengers don't pay any charges, according to data provided by the lots' operator.
Al Mosbahi said that the charges were determined by GACA. However, he defended them and said they are among the lowest in the region. "We made a compared study and found that charges in Saudi is less than that in Qatar, Dubai, and Lebanon," he said. It costs about 3.6 riyals per hour to park at Cairo airport, 4.9 riyals in Oman, 4.2 riyals in Malaysia, 5.2 riyals in Qatar, 10.2 riyals in Dubai, and about 17 riyals in Lebanon.
"I think we needed to charge people at least 10 riyals for us to carry out all of our services and to cover up all the investments we've made to further develop the airport," he added. His company paid for 300 high-definition security cameras covering the roads surrounding the main terminal and terminal escalators. "We've invested a lot of money," he said, "but people don't realise that they have to pay for all these improvements."
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