“The breakdown of the fingerprinting system at the immigration delayed entry procedures of 1,950 passengers,” a local Arabic daily said, adding that the system failure caused overcrowding of passengers at arrival lounges of the airports.
However, the breakdown that continued for 12 hours in one airport, did not affect the entry of other passengers including Saudis and GCC citizens as well as expatriates holding re-entry visas. Khaled Al-Khaibary, public relations manager of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), said the technical failure that began Thursday morning was repaired by noon on the same day.
He admitted that the failure caused overcrowding of some 820 passengers at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh. The affected passengers included 300 maids who came to the Kingdom on new visas.
He also pointed out that a number of passengers who arrived at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah on visit visas were also held up. “The airport management started entering data of passengers by hand until the system was brought to normal by noon,” he pointed out.
Al-Khaibary estimated the number of affected passengers at King Fahd International Airport in Dammam at 800. “GACA coordinated with the Passport Department to find a quick solution for the problem,” the spokesman said. He said some passengers had arrived in the Kingdom after a long flight.
He said the airport management had distributed meals and beverages among the passengers. Khaled Al-Mezaal, director general of King Fahd airport, said the problem started on Wednesday when the fingerprinting system at the airport was operating very slowly, delaying immigration procedures.
“The system broke down completely at 2 a.m. on Thursday and the failure continued until 2 p.m. when it began working slowly,” Al-Mezaal said, adding that about 800 passengers who came on 11 flights were affected by the system failure in Dammam airport.