Jeddah Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Was transiting in Jeddah to & fro for my Singapore-Istanbul trip. As a budget conscious female traveler, I had read the past horrifying reviews of the airport and was well prepared for rude staff, prejudice against female travelers, dirty toilets and limited seatings. However, my experience was rather positive. Upon leaving the aircraft a bus brought us to a terminal where a man was directing the travelers heading to Jeddah & transit passengers. The transit passengers were directed to a passport control/boarding pass checking place, where the staff just chopped my boarding pass without any problem and was rather polite and nice as he wished me a good holiday in Istanbul. We were then redirected to a security baggage checking place. It is true that only 2 lines were made available for women while 5 lines were available for men. However, in no way was I ever treated with prejudice or disrespected for being a female traveler. The security officials on guard even guided us to the nearest female security checking place. The security checking was over in about 15 minutes. Afterward, we were greeted by a decently sized duty-free area selling, Arabic dates, cosmetic items, candies, and chocolate. I didn't plan to buy anything hence, I just walked out of the duty-free shop. The area after the duty-free shop is where the hustle and bustle begins. The small transit area was packed to the brim literally with people sleeping on the floor, standing aimlessly and crowding around the gate signages. My advice to survive this would be to buy a coffee or a small snack which was very affordable in one of the cafes. It is not necessary to have Saudi Riyala as I managed to pay using Visa. I then hogged the seat in the cafe for the remaining 9 hours of my transit time. The Wifi was bad/non-existent at times as it only allowed me to send or receive Whatsapp messages. The other unpleasant experience was the toilet. The toilet was wet, smelly and dirty but it was not the most dirtiest toilet I have ever used. It is possible to just tolerate the smell and do a quick trip to the loo. Another unpleasant thing is the constant screaming/loud announcements in the PA system in Arabic for the final calls of certain flights. It was not pleasant but tolerable and I even managed to sleep despite the loud announcements HAHAHA The business/first class lounge/Alfursan lounge looked pretty decent and was open to people for a fee of about $SGD 25. I didn't pay to enter the lounge as I managed to survive in the transit lounge. After my rather long hours of waiting, my boarding gate was reflected in the screen panels. We were once again assembled in an area and a shuttle bus brought us to our aircraft. Overall, the transit layover wasn't very pleasant but was very much tolerable and very reasonable for the cheap price I paid for the airfare. If you are someone who is on a tight budget, dont mind a little unclean/crowded place, have a short layover, Jeddah airport is tolerable. However, if you have money to spend, have an extremely long layover (more than 12 hours), cannot stand noisy/unclean/crowded environment it is best you avoid the layover in Jeddah.

✅ Trip Verified | Awful customer services and facilities. Ground staff and officials rude, no customer service skills and no respect for passengers. Toilet facilities awful, not clean - 1 flight to India + 1 flight to Bangladesh + flight to London make the facility overcrowded, queue line to WC, no seats or places to sit down. No places to get good, nice food. Transit services awful, if you do not have to do not use this airport, not advisable.

Not Verified | This is the worst airport I have ever seen. Fully crowded airport, there is no place to even sit. Toilets are not maintained properly. Saudi being a rich country could do better.

✅ Trip Verified | Trolleys are sold to passengers. I was searching for two trolleys and I paid 10 Riyals for a trolley. I went to terminal to take a trolley as I required one more. As soon as I was taking a trolley, two airport workers with uniform were pushing several trolleys to outsiide of the terminal and told me to be patient as they would provide its to passengers outside. I was following them for a trolley but they handed over its to their co-worker outside who were selling its to passengers taking ten Riyals per trolley. As I ask them, they were arguing and told me that they are authourised workers to sell trolleys showing their Ids issued by airport authority. I have been in many countries but I have never seen such airport.

Not Verified | To call the 7 hour transit experience a total nightmare is an understatement. I don't want to go on a rant so I'll list down the airport's shortcomings: 1. It was extremely overcrowded and noisy (I am not talking about the noise from the travellers though). Every few minutes an announcement in an abnormally high volume shoots through the speakers, as if that's not torture enough an employee begins literally yelling out the names of the passenger who have yet to board. 2. Unlike most airports, there are no quiet areas where lights are dimmed and you can get some shut eye. So I advise you to get blinders. 3. The toilets are awful, I was only able to manage less than 2 minutes as the odour of bleach was so overwhelming. I was planning to wait in line but I immediately left after a cleaner/staff started banging on one of the stalls and yelling "you're time is up lady!" For those staying for 7 hours or more prepare yourselves to be sleep deprived, exposed to noise torture and unable to relieve yourselves.

✅ Trip Verified | The worst airport ever - noisy, no seats, unfriendly staff: Nine hours of our stay were utterly appalling! Normally I don‘t write reviews, but I feel like I should issue a warning: The airport in Jeddah was our worst experience ever! Please, do yourself a favour and avoid travelling with Saudi Airlines and skip the transit here. The staff are highly unprofessional and disorganized. There are not enough seats. For nine hours, we had to sit on the utterly dirty ground! But the worst of all were the toilets: In my entire life, I have never seen such a mess. Furthermore, many people there have a lack of hygiene, they put their naked feet on the seats and were highly reckless. It's distinctly clear that there aren't many chairs, but many travellers blocked two chairs for their feet. We were shocked. There were definitely no feelings of acceptance or hospitality. As a fact, it‘s no miracle, that this aiport is ranked as the worst airport of the world! So as a matter of course, we're going to avoid this location and you should also skip that transit!

Not Verified | If I was King Abdulaziz I would be ashamed that this airport was named after me. It is dingy and small and dirty and smelly and the bathrooms are filthy and disgusting! There is little to no shopping. For an international airport in a rich country I can see that this is obviously not a priority. Not a good advertisement for your country. I loved Saudia Airlines but if it means I have to travel through this airport I will not do it again.

Not Verified | Contrary to the information on Saudia website, the lounge does not allow Saudia passengers to purchase lounge pass. I was told very rudely at Fursan lounge that the offer is only available at the North Terminal, 45 mins car ride frm the South terminal. Not surprising really as this is typical of the way Saudis carry out their business. Online information does not filter through among the staff. My advice is if you have a longer than 3 hour transit in Jeddah, if you can, avoid flying with Saudia Airlines. There is a small transit lounge, rather dingy and taken up by families with children. Once you leave the transit terminal, you enter a duty ree shop full of perfumes. The terminal itself is small, packed and noisy at all times with exceedingly loud announcements in mostly Arabic. At times, the announcer shouted calling for final passengers to board their flights. There is only one toilet here with 7-8 cubicles in the ladies toilet. The cleaners worked non-stop ensuring its cleanliness. There is a Baskin Robbin, Tom Horton coffee, Arabica coffee. The free airport wifi requires you to turn on your roaming to be connected which means you might be charged for connection - I doubt the airport authorities care about providing comfort at their terminals as I have been using their other terminals for haj and umrah. This is the first time and hopefully the last, I transit here to another destination.

Not Verified | The worst airport is this old one, not enough seating, I know they're waiting for the new one but at least they should fix small things in this one. For transit I couldn't see any information kiosks to help me with upgrading my flight. Restrooms aren't clean, the men's line is always full and some people are passing the line with no reason. No place to charge your phone.

Not Verified | We flew in from the UK for the first time to Saudi Arabia and was expecting an airport in the same league as Dubai but wow was I disappointed. The most arrogant and rude immigration staff I have ever encountered in my life and I have travelled the world. I would class this Airport as one of the worst that I have traveled through, the toilet facilities the worst I have come across, one of the worst seating areas not able to accommodate the passenger numbers. I found that we were treated like unwanted people in the country, yet we people of the world contribute so much to the Saudi Economy.