Expats Guide: Flying To Saudi

On Board
If you’re flying Saudia there will be some extra interesting things going on. Kind of like watching an action movie! There will be seat-shuffling, kids bouncing around seats and hallways during take off and landing, the toilets will most likely be flooded with water form people having performed wudu (washing before prayer) inside the toilets, people praying on hallways blocking the way and other things which the flight attendant should say something about, but they just don’t because it’s Saudi Airlines and anything goes.

None of the flights coming into Saudi serve alcohol or pork. Some of the airlines will have a travel prayer announced before the flight takes off.
At some point the stewardess will give you an entry card which looks like this:

The first time they handed me this I was confused should I fill it in or not. I did and nobody ever asked for it. I insisted giving it to the passport officer as well as the customs officer but they just gave me a blank stare and threw it in the trash. None of my relatives or friends who were given this were ever asked for it either so its purpose remains a mystery. EDIT 2017: They are not handing these out anymore but that might change at anytime.

If you were sitting next to an unveiled Saudi woman on the plane which originated from a western country,  don’t be surprised when she comes back from her toilet trip fully transformed into Saudi gear meaning abaya and niqab. When exiting the plane you will wonder where all the women’s faces suddenly have disappeared!

When the plane lands be prepared for a scene from the Amazing Race:

Many of us have been on planes and seen how strongly the flight attendants (especially on the European airlines) react to people even daring to open their seat belts before the plane has come to complete stop, let alone standing up or God forbid opening the holy overhead compartments! The flight attendants would normally react immediately and prevent the passengers from standing and opening compartments due to safety reasons and regulations. That person might even get arrested for such an offense of aviation rules and regulations.

However, on most Saudi based airlines like Saudia, Flynas and others, they are not that strict. People will try this every time, and it might be that flight attendants are simply too frustrated to try and control the crowds in this regard.

Some people are just Very Important People and have such important things to do, they really DO need to get up the SECOND the plane lands to scramble to get their overhead luggage and be the first ones to stand in the aisles ready to barge out of the plane like it’s the amazing race. You might see the poor flight attendants desperately trying to talk/shout/threaten them to no avail. It’s of utmost importance to be able to be the first one out of the aircraft because this might save the person about 15-30 seconds of their precious time (sarcasm).

Arrival and Passport control
This might be the most daunting part of your trip. When you arrive at the Riyadh King Khaled International (KKIA) airport and make your way downstairs to the passport check lines you will encounter a taste of the Saudi way of doing things. If you’re lucky there will not be long queues as can be seen here:

There will be much confusion at this point. The only people who will seem to have a clue where to go are the Saudis that have all already rushed to their own queue on the far right labelled residents and GCC. The signs seen above stating “first time arrivals” and “arrivals with multiple exit re- entry visa” have no significance whatsoever. Choose any line, preferably the shortest one. If it’s the wrong one they will change you to the correct line. In general people will be directed in the lines according to nationality. As can be seen here:

All Afghanis in one line, Pakistanis in another. Looks like they’ve been waiting for few days. Might even be the case. If you’re a western woman, men at the airport (all nationalities) WILL all stare at you which might be very intimidating for first time arrivals. Better get used to this. Another common sight is to see a line full of Indonesian or Filipino women coming in as maids. They will also be sitting on the floors and be dressed in normal clothing, often looking rather fearful. It’s a sad fact that your nationality determines how long you will wait and also how you will be treated at the airport.

EDIT 2017: There is notable improvement in the arrivals passport control and the immigration officers have clearly been through some training in terms of manners and efficiency. Lines move faster now and are based on first time entry vs a re-entry visas only. Be prepared to be fingerprinted upon arrival.

Saudis naturally get out the fastest. They don’t have visa issues and the process is fast but some use tactics such as jumping the queue in front of all the other lines. If this happens to you despite the hour long wait there’s nothing you can do about it. Second luckiest are westerners. Especially women travelling alone. 90% of the time they will be picked out from the back of the lines by the Saudi officers and showed directly to the front. Men are not that lucky usually.

Sometimes families with small children are picked out the line and allowed to cut in front of everyone, if they’re lucky.

In general the passport dudes are rude, indifferent and NEVER smile. No need for concern though, it seems to be part of their job description and has nothing to do with you. This is also not an indication of how you will be treated by all Saudi people! You will be fingerprinted here as well. EDIT 2017: Significant positive improvement in attitudes of passport control dudes has been noted.

For the females arriving alone you might be asked who your sponsor is or if you have a ride home, let them know you’re going to use an UBER or London Taxi ( or whatever form of transport it is you’re going to use).

Luggage and Customs
Once you’ve managed to pass through to the luggage belts you will be approached by men dressed in green or blue overalls. They are the airport staff who you can hire (but you don’t HAVE to even though they insist) to help to lift your luggage on the cart and push the cart around for 20SAR. The carts only are free of charge. Expect the luggage to arrive a pace befitting the Kingdom, taking their sweeeeet time!

This is a good moment to start adjusting to SMT.

After this you will proceed to the x-ray machines to have your luggage x-rayed for the above mentioned prohibited items. Remember to place all bags, even handbags on the belt.

With bad luck you will get one of the officers that seem to want to open every foreigners luggage with “suspicious” items in them. Your chocolates might contain liqour and they want to check. Most of the time you’ll just breeze through.

If the officer wants to check you don’t panic. Be co-operative and show him everything he wants. He will soon let you move along. I’ve never heard of anything else being confiscated from people I know other  than plastic “money” chips meant for Black Jack, few DVD’s and CD’s. and that’s it. They really don’t care too much about other stuff mentioned on the list such as books or magazines for example.

Once I had about 6 bottles of various juice concentrates packed with me from Finland. Good stuff like unsweetened lingonberry juice (a brain-burstingly sour juice) blueberry, strawberry, cloudberry and other Finnish wild berry juices. Admittedly, it might have looked suspicious.

The officer was convinced I had smuggled in alcohol, shook the bottles and with a beaming face said “AHA! Alcohol! Look, bubbles! Alcohol, too much bubbles!” I laughed and told him to go ahead and taste it (it was the lingonberry bottle so I secretly wished he did). He took me to the back office with the boss, they turned the bottles around for a while, laughed and looked at me like I was a lunatic (maybe they were right) for bringing that stuff in and told me to move along. Got to keep all my goodies though.

After the x-ray you will be out of the luggage area and be met by a row of men, mainly people’s drivers and taxi drivers. It’s best to move on to the exit on the left and get a taxi from the official taxi line outside. A cab to Riyadh city center should not cost you more than 70SAR. A single female can also hire a taxi alone from here without any problems. EDIT: 2017 You can now order a Careem or UBER taxi to come pick you at a certain time, and there’s a London Cab company stand outside. London cab to city will cost around 100-150 sar.

Welcome to the Magic Kingdom!