BURAIDA: The powerful sandstorm which hit Qassim Saturday has prevented four planes from Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Madina landing at Qassim Regional Airport. This caused great inconvenience to passengers and resulted in the airport authorities rescheduling incoming flights. Muhammad Al-Majlad, the airport's manager, said the range of visibility was below 1,000 meters, which prevented the planes from landing. He said work on the expansion of the main runway, which is expected to finish in 10 days' time, will help planes to land even if the range of visibility is 800 meters. Planes are now using the alternative runway. He said a developmental project will be carried out in the next few days which will improve support services for passengers. He said the airport's authority reschedules flights only in the case of emergencies like bad weather. He stressed that eight flights regularly arrive and fly from Qassim in addition to a daily flight from Egypt, which will be increased to three or four flights a week via Dubai. Several passengers have expressed their dissatisfaction over the standard of services. This will affect the region's future economic development, said the passengers.
