A new imposition by the Saudi Arabian government is being implemented that would require airlines ferrying haj pilgrims to the country to pay SAR600,000 or USD160,000 as a guarantee. The guarantee would cover the assurance required of airlines as to the return of all its ferried passengers by the end of the season.
According to the guideline issued by the General Authority for Civil Aviation, the total value of the bond would be dependent on the number of haj passengers togethr with the cost of a one-way ticket from Jeddah to the country of origin of the pilgrim. The airlines would be required to pay the guarantee into a Saudi Arabian financial institution and then the bank guarantee would be issued to GACA. GACA on the other hand, has the authority to deduct the cost of returning a pilgrim not ferried out of the country at the end of the haj season.
The annual pilgrimage is undertaken by millions of the Islam faith and they travel to Saudi Arabia, which is scheduled this year to be by mid-October. The government has cut down on the number of foreign pilgrim to Mecca this year because of the ongoing construction work at Islam's holiest mosque. The USD21 billion expansion is expected to expand the mosque's capacity to two million pilgrims.
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