GACA announces the success of the “EYAB” (Return) initiative in Jeddah and the start of the program in Madinah

The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), in cooperation with Technology Control Company (TCC), is preparing for the launch of the “EYAB” (Return) initiative at Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz International Airport (PMIA) in Madinah.

This comes after the success of the initiative at King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah, which aims to finalize travel procedures for pilgrims with ease and comfort in an automated manner that starts from their place of residence and before arriving at the airport.

The initiative targets in its first phase for this Hajj Season (1440) around 30,000 pilgrims from each of the three countries (Indonesia, India and Malaysia).  All the entities contributing to this endeavor, namely the Makkah Province Emara, the Emara of Madinah Province, Islamic Affairs Ministry, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, the Presidency of State Security, the General Directorate of Passports, Customs, the National Information Center and the Red Crescent.  This in addition to the contribution of the committee for the provision of food and water that is supervised by the Makkah Province Emara and its job is to provide free meal to all the initiative pilgrims.

The initiative is being implemented at KAIA in Jeddah and PMIA in Madinah.  It is expected that the initiative will be expanded in the future.

It is worth noting, that more than (16,500) pilgrims have benefited from the initiative at KAIA in Jeddah.  95 government employees and 55 volunteers, who worked on facilitating end of travel procedures in a span of more than two hours.

The initiative provides ease flexibility to the pilgrims when departing the Kingdom, where companies approved by GACA and through Eyab electronic Platform through which the pilgrims’ data is automatically verified, while the luggage is linked and tracked, until all departure procedures are completed, receive the pilgrims’ luggage 24 hours from departure.

The implementation of the initiative at KAIA in Jeddah has achieved a remarkable success in facilitating the pilgrims’ procedures, where the number of daily departure through the initiative have reached 1100 pilgrims, who needed 410 buses and traveled on 41 flights.  The number of luggage that were recorded through Eyab electronic platform, which was created by GACA have reached 20,000 pieces.

GACA have also sponsored through (TCC) company a cultural and civilization exhibition that provide the pilgrims with special services after all their procedures has been completed.  A cadre of young men and women who will introduce them to the Saudi culture will meet them and heritage, the exhibition sits on an area of 3400 square meters, equipped with all the amenities for the enjoyment and comfort of the pilgrims.