The first Saudi flight evacuating citizens from Indonesia arrived in Riyadh on Friday with 250 passengers.
"This is the first batch of Saudis wishing to leave Jakarta," Saudi Ambassador to Indonesia Issam Abed Al-Thaqafi said.
Some 1,000 nationals stranded in Indonesia by the COVID-19 virus want to return home, he revealed.
He said other flights coming from Jakarta are on Sunday and Monday. "The flights will land in Jeddah and Dammam," Al-Thaqafi also said.
He also added they will continue until all Saudis who want to return to the Kingdom are back home.
Requests to return home can be filled through a dedicated platform on the foreign ministry's website.
After the plane landed at King Khalid International Airport on Friday morning, specialists also took all sanitary and protective measures to the 250 passengers as a precaution against the coronavirus.
Representatives of the ministries of foreign affairs, tourism and health and the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) also received the passengers.
The Health Ministry has set up a checkpoint where all incoming passengers must pass through thermal camera devices. A passenger showing suspected virus symptoms is isolated from the rest of the travelers. The passengers are also to sterilize their hands before passing through passport control and stand at a distance of at least 1.5 meters. Finally, the passengers are transported to guesthouses prepared by the Ministry of Tourism and supervised by a health ministry for a quarantine period of 14 days.
The operation follows the directives of King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. This all comes in line with their keenness on safety and health of citizens abroad during the coronavirus pandemic.
The King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh; King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah; as well as King Fahd International Airport in Dammam are ready to receive Saudis from Jakarta; Washington DC; Kuala Lumpur; Mauritius; Muscat; London; Manila; the Maldives; Colombo; as well as New York.
