More than 107,000 passengers in one day crossed the King Fahd Causeway, connecting Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, a record figure in the daily movement of passengers since the causeway opened three decades ago.

The causeway recorded the highest passenger traffic movement 24 hours before the end of Eid vacation for private sector employees. The events and activities held in Bahrain to celebrate Eid Al-Fitr contributed greatly to the increase in passenger movement on the causeway, which is considered one of the most crowded land border crossings during vacations and official holidays, an online publication reported.
The General Directorate of Passports reported that during peak times on holidays and vacations, the travel procedures by one employee on the King Fahd Causeway are conducted for about 400 passengers per hour, considering that the normal rate for any employee, but the number drops if the system crashes because of any technical malfunction.
This comes after the General Organization for King Fahd Causeway launched a platform to track passenger movement in the areas of procedures between the two countries, around the clock, which allows passengers to learn the intensity of traffic on the website, www.kfca.com.sa.
The organization is working on a project to dispense with the human element from the operations of collecting fees, weighing vehicles, the control system and financial checking with customer service divisions, as well as the smart traffic system for trucks, and the applications with customs and passports.
Work is currently underway to expand the terrestrial area for procedures to coincide with the one-point travel procedure system in order to accommodate the crowding of passengers on the causeway, which last year witnessed traffic of more than 60,000 passengers per day.
On another issue, Tariq Abdul-Jabbar, deputy assistant for domestic airports at the General Authority of Civil Aviation, told a local newspaper that King Khalid International Airport, in Riyadh, has contracted with five international companies that specialize in duty-free markets operating at airports, including Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, Heathrow in London and the Geneva airport.
Last Saturday, King Khalid International Airport announced on its Twitter account on the closing of the airport’s duty-free shop for renovations. The tweet was met with caustic remarks saying that the airport never had a duty free market in the first place
King Khalid international Airport in Riyadh launched the duty-free shop project at the end of 2014, in an area of 2,200 square meters in the departure lounge. The duty-free market was operated by the World Duty Free Group.

Source: Arab News