Saudi Arabia decides to not retain passport of Indian airlines crew; staffers to move freely in Kingdom

New Delhi, March 31: Saudi Arabia bringing a major reform in its aviation sector, has decided to stop retaining the passports of crew members of Indian airlines including Air India and Jet Airways on arrival. Notably, the strengthened diplomatic relations between India and Saudi Arabia has brought an immense benefit to Indians in many sectors. Therefore, Saudi Arabia has given a major relief to the crew members of Indian Airlines.

 

The Saudi Arabian government led by King Salman has decided to issue a barcode to the crew members of Air India and Jet Airways after their arrival to kingdom instead of retaining a passport. The barcode provided by Saudi Arabian government to the crew members of two airlines had made easy for them to travel freely in the kingdom.

A spokesperson for Air India on Friday confirmed that crew passports are not being retained, instead, a number is entered in the crew passport that has a limited validity by Saudi Arabia on arrival to the Kingdom. On the other side, Jet Airways also confirmed the development.

The issuing of a barcode with the limited validity to the crew of the two airlines arrived in Saudi Arabia came into effect since mid-February this year. The move comes days after Saudi Arabia gave the green signal for Air India to fly over its airspace when flying to and from Tel Aviv.

Importantly, in 2017, four Air India crew members were out for dinner a day after their flight from Mumbai landed in Jeddah when a police team approached them to check their travel papers. When the airline staff failed to provide the original documents they were put in a police van and imprisoned. Later, India took up the matter with Saudi Arabian authorities and after it was resolved, they decided that the airline staffers will be issued a special Air India identity card.