By Akram Medhat
Saudi authorities have stressed that no one holding a business visit visa will be allowed to enter the Kingdom through 6 airports, namely Jeddah, Medina, Riyadh, Dammam, Qassim and Abha, until the end of the 1438 AH Hajj season.
An official letter from EgyptAir's regional office in Saudi Arabia stated that no business visit visas will be accepted at the aforementioned airports, based on instructions from the Saudi authorities, and holders of such visas will be sent back on the same flights after being questioned by the relevant authorities in the Kingdom.
Saudia has also sent its agents among travel companies in Egypt an official letter stressing that holders of visit visas of all types will not be accepted to Jeddah and Medina, while they will be accepted via Riyadh, Dammam and Abha, but under specific conditions, most importantly that the passenger holds a confirmed round-trip ticket for the same arrival station, and that no domestic tickets are issued to Jeddah, Medina, Yanbu or Taif.
With this measure, Saudi Arabia aims to control the number of pilgrims arriving from around the world, in order to prepare in the best possible way to provide services and equip the areas designated for performing the Hajj rituals without any problems caused by overcrowding, especially after Saudi Arabia restored the 20% it had cut from all countries' quotas, 4 years after the cut was made during the implementation of the Grand Mosque expansion project in Mecca.
It is worth noting that Egypt's share of Hajj visas stands at 78,138 visas, returning to normal this season after it was reduced to 62,511 visas during the Grand Mosque expansion project. The tourism Hajj share of these amounts to about 36,000 visas, while the rest represents the share of the Interior Ministry lottery and the NGOs affiliated with the Ministry of Social Solidarity.
