On a domestic route, there is one thing that some Saudi passengers will never respect when flying — to sit on the seat allotted to them by the airline, which in this case is Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) for now. But things may change with the opening up of the skies for the domestic routes to other airlines. Two strong Gulf airlines could well be Saudia's competitors, and those who have abused our national carrier's hospitality could well be the ones who would respect the others' “orders.” I used to wonder why Saudi Arabian Airlines was always late during departures. I found out the real reason when I was on a Saudia flight from Jeddah to Madinah. Though such incidents have happened for years, I, like many other passengers, just laughed it off. On occasions, there are technical reasons that contribute to the departure's delay, but along with that there is invariably another major one. There are passengers not sitting at their specified seats or not wanting to sit at a particular place or just wanting to sit at a particular one. It was only when, at the start of my flight, I was subjected to the harassment that flight attendants experience did I realize that we Saudis are the biggest culprits in pushing our once-proud and leading airlines far behind other major carriers. The plot that gets enacted, I believe in nearly every domestic flight, is a veritable Shakespearean Comedy of Errors. And this flight was no different. Two women, who were allotted seats to the back of the airplane especially after being possible last arrivals, decided to sit up front so they could be the first to leave when the plane lands. An Egyptian passenger found one of the two women sitting on his seat. He requested help from the flight attendant, who was busy seating other passengers. The flight attendant, a veteran of the daily seat conundrums, asked him to sit on another seat temporarily, hoping that the problem would sort out itself. The passenger complied by parking himself at the nearest available seat. The rightful “allottee” of the seat arrived only to find the seat taken. He politely told the Egyptian passenger that the seat was his and asked him to sit somewhere else. The flight attendant then took the Egyptian to a different seat at the back while she helped other passengers. The Egyptian's ordeal had not ended. The airline had already given the seat he was occupying to another passenger, who also insisted on sitting at his assigned number. But the passenger, who had not seen Act I and II played out before his arrival, decided to give the Egyptian passenger an earful on respecting the seat number, and after the lecture, the attendant moved the Egyptian further back. This time, a Saudi who was given the seat too asked the Egyptian to move. The patient Egyptian passenger had had enough. He looked at the flight attendant and said, “ If the bathroom seat is free and I could be seated on it, it would be fine as I just want to reach my destination.” His angry retort, even in jest, spoke volumes of some of our passengers' attitude and the apathy of some of our service providers. His anger was justified and in his strong criticism of the Saudia services he said one thing, which I believe is true, that the seating problem only exists in Saudi Arabian Airlines. One thing for sure was that the flight took off 14 minutes later than the scheduled time, as do most Saudia flights on the domestic route. On my way back to Jeddah, the same problem once again offset the departure time. A family decided to sit next to each other on the front of the airplane and refused to move. Passengers, holding the right seat numbers, were forced to sit elsewhere or move to the back of the airplane until they found other seats. An old woman showed up and happened to be seated next to me. She asked me to move elsewhere because she was not suppose to sit next to a man. Remembering what happened to the Egyptian and fearing that I may end up with the bathroom seat, I told her that the option was hers to either sit down or find another place. To solve the problem, a Saudi gave up his seat next to his wife to help the woman and sat next to me. Again, more than 15 minutes were wasted in the seating game before the airplane took off. I feel sorry for flight attendants, who on nearly every flight, have to play the game of musical chairs and try to solve the problem while also pleasing everybody. It is a daily headache and extremely stressful and energy consuming, and despite all their efforts they invariably end up by angering someone. There must be something wrong with passengers refusing to sit on their assigned seats. The fact that this seat problem is ongoing even after the airlines has made available the facility of picking their seats online and printing their ticket 24 hours before a flight tells me a crucial thing — that the passengers are either lazy or just plain stubborn in getting their way. They do not have any consideration for any of their fellow passengers, nor any pride in their national carrier. It is high time that Saudia becomes competitive and takes tough actions on passengers being picky about seats. I cannot understand where the problem is. Why is this happening on almost every Saudia flight? I am sure that the same people would not pose such problems on an international route on a foreign airline. They know that if they act obdurate over seats, then they could well be unseated by the airlines. For, I believe, that the pilot is within his right to deplane any passenger who is creating trouble. I wonder, why Saudia pilots are not exercising their authority and offloading any passenger that is not respecting the airline's authority in giving them a seat number. For me, I would also ask the airline to consider empowering flight attendants to deplane any passenger not sitting on his or her seat. Recently Saudi Arabian Airlines offloaded two Saudi passengers from a Cairo to Madinah flight for refusing to sit on their assigned seats and for fighting with flight attendants. This should be adopted in each flight and flight attendants should show no leniency toward anything that will delay the departure of a flight. If need be, they could get a security officer to make sure that everything is in order. Passengers will think twice before they switch seats. The only time I would condone this seat change is if it were voluntarily done with the people requesting the change or if an old or an infirm passenger has to make a long walk to the back of the plane and requests a change. But even before this change is requested, I have seen many Saudis voluntarily give up their seats for such people. And it happens all without much ado and in quick time. My dream in this very competitive world is that Saudia would not have to face this petty problem time and again and will once more be the airline that took off and landed on time. This is just one step in the series of services that need improving for them to rule the skies again.
