Jeddah Airport

❎ Unverified | Contrary to the reviews I have read, I had a very positive experience. I was pleased to be in the terminal in 10 minutes from the Aircraft, and thru immigration and customs within 20 minutes. What more can you ask from an international airport that handles huge volumes of people. I found the immigration staff very polite and courteous which you don't even find in so called European and other first world countries.

✅ Verified Review | King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah is the worst airport in Saudi Arabia. Old, cramped and overcrowded terminal building; long queues for check-in and immigration; rude and inconsiderate airport staff sums up Jeddah Airport. I landed at midnight and was welcomed by long queues for immigration. Immigration is a nightmare at all Saudi Airports. The immigration could sometimes take hours due to indifferent and sluggish attitude of immigration staff. Somehow after immigration, the baggage reclaim is also no easy deal. The conveyor belts are small and sometimes in the case of multiple arrivals, the area gets too much overcrowded and there is no luggage trolley to be seen. The toilets are old, unkempt and less in numbers. Hope the brand new upcoming King Abdulaziz International Airport change the way people make entry into Saudi Arabia, especially the millions of Umrah and Hajj Pilgrims.

✅ Verified Review | This review is based upon my experience of using Jeddah Airport 17 times between August 2015 and June 2017. Jeddah has two main terminals designated North (International) and South (mainly Saudia including international but also Fly Nas and Korean Air). This review is not about the Haaj Terminal which is in addition to the above. In summary the services provided at both the North and South Terminals are appalling; there really is no other adequate adjective to describe it. The North Terminal is worse receiving a 1/10 rating and the South Terminal receives a 2/10 by my figures. Both buildings are far too small for the volume of clients. The toilets are always dirty, they are too small and are poorly maintained. Check-in at best is either poor or dangerous; at peak times you will hear screaming, you will see pushing and you will experience utter chaos as the management have no idea how to create any meaningful systems to facilitate the flow of people. Luggage will randomly appear being dragged over your feet as a client suddenly realises that they might be about to miss their flight so they attack the desks via a side flank pincer movement. Once through into departures there are limited options for food, retail and seating. The signage is often incorrect and does not always directly relate to the appropriate flight. The worst aspect of this airport are the staff. None of the staff seem to have any idea that their job is to provide any kind of service; whether checking-in, departures, immigration or emigration. The exception to this appear to be some BA, Emirates and Qatar staff. The police who undertake a final examination of your passport before you get onto your bus for your 3 mile minimum ride to your aeroplane are rude, arrogant and totally ignorant of any concept of customer service. Their job is to intimidate and ensure your passport stamp allows to to actually leave. This is probably the only airport in the world where you will see customs officers shouting, being rude and even watching videos on their phones. This is the only airport in the world where I was physically pushed into line prior to queuing at immigration. Immigration into this country is a massive stress due to the unknown timeframe; in almost two years the best I got from aeroplane to exiting the airport with no luggage was 45 minutes and the worse was almost 3 hours. Avoid this airport; fly via Riyadh to enter Saudi but monitor the next 2 years as the Singaporean managed new airport comes on-line.

✅ Verified Review | Jeddah is undoubtedly the worst in the world. Flight scheduling is a joke. Terminal seating and cleanliness is terrible. Immigration and airport staff with the worst attitude. Queuing system is practically nil. I can't say avoid this because there's no other option to commute to this part of the world

Having read all the bad reviews about Jeddah airport I was prepared for the worst. Sadly I was not disappointed and it is even worse than expected! This place surely cannot be called an airport. The facilities are insufficient, there flight information system is a joke, the immigrations officers are constantly on their phones. They leave long queue as they please and socialise without any sense of responsibility whatsoever with their fellow officers leaving people in queue much to the disgust of those rushing for connecting flights. No matter how grand or modern their new airport would be with these kinds of people manning them. No wonder jeddah airport has been labelled the worst airport in the world. This reputation I am sure will be held for many years in the future. Avoid this airport like the plague!

✅ Verified Review | Jeddah is by far the worst airport I have ever experienced given that it is in a country that is very, very wealthy. Immigration is a nightmare - especially on Friday. It does not matter what class you travel in outbound or inbound. Immigration officers lounge about, on their phones or socializing. The bathrooms are filthy and awkwardly constructed. Parking and airport access is unruly and disorganized. Duty free offerings are a joke. The lounges, whether Saudia or the other one that all airlines end up using, are nothing to rave about. Comparing the Emirates, Etihad and Qatar lounges with the AlFursan lounge is like comparing a Bentley with a Camry. Check-in counters and the space is an absolute mess. All of this chaos is generally brought about due to Umrah passengers. Instead of completely separating operations, including outbound and inbound immigration procedures, the airport continues to operate as a mix bag operation making it a nightmare for the residents of the city (expats and locals). The cherry on top is the lack of jet ways - they still use the old fashioned method of hauling passengers via buses with no priority boarding options. The overall lackadaisical and carefree attitude is seen from top to bottom with all the employees. The only people truly serious about their work are the customs staff. Hats off to them. Everyone else is just passing time. It gives passengers shudders when landing in Jeddah, because no one knows how long and crazy the lines will get and what the 'mood' of the immigration employees be upon landing. The North terminal is much worse than the South terminal and heaven help you if you have to go between the two terminals. At times, you will find out that your flight is departing from the Hajj terminal. It's a project in itself to get to that terminal. Despite the fact that the terminal was built under 10 years ago, it has aged like it was started 20 years ago. The state of the this airport is worse than airports found in 3rd world countries. ** NEEDS TICKET

✅ Verified Review | We transited through Jeddah Airport en route to somewhere else in Saudi Arabia. We didn't get to experience the airport at all because of the time it took to get processed through security! We queued for over 3 hours and as a consequence we almost missed our connecting flight. The staff were oblivious to the huge queue and didn't seem to have any sense of urgency getting people through.

✅ Verified Review | Very bad airport, in fact it should not be regarded as an airport. But since aircraft's can take-off and land there, one has to call it that. Terminal building is really bad, facilities none and the staff are anything from rude to insulting. No internet, no eating possibilities except Baskins, Tim Hortons coffee and a local food chain. Very crowded terminal building with not enough seating. Even a few hours seem to be never ending. Avoid this airport at all costs unless you are going there for pilgrimage.

✅ Verified Review | I was dreading my experience having read the reviews of Jeddah Airport. I arrived and departed from Saudi Airlines terminal and experience was very good. I heard that experience at international terminal (North) is not as good as South terminal (Saudia terminal). The airport has limited space so seating can be a real problem. Staff were friendly. Baggage arrival can be slow and your bus ride once you deplane can take between 5-20 minutes depending on where the plane is parked.

Transited through Jeddah from Frankfurt to Lahore. For an international airport that services travellers to the holy cities of Makah and Medina, the people who run this airport forgot to keep this place up to date, for the amount of traffic that comes through. You have to take the bus to get to the airport once landed, once there, there is very little signage except a desk with some security to check your passport. there is no concept of queues here, once they look over your paperwork they point you up the stairs, with little to no information and it seems everyone that works here can speak little to no English. Once up the stairs there is a random guy sitting there with a baggage scanner who does not really care and is more concerned to just relax. At this point you walk into a room that looks like an old Cigar smoke shop, with people laying all over the place and no real indication on where to go. Once you figure out how to get to the next security check you will be yelled at by security on what to do and herded like cattle into lines where peoples first priority is push and shove to get to the front. Once again be prepared for extreme rudeness. Once through you will go through the duty free shop area and enter the main departure terminal. I think the seating ratio is 1 seat per 100 people, with more people sitting on the floor. One bathroom for men and one for women to handle the whole terminal. Not much to eat there and no courtesy amongst the employees. My wife was with me with our two month old son and no one was willing to give up their seat to sit down and she and I ended up standing for close to an hour before our gate was called. Once your gate is called you will be bussed off to your plane which in our case was a 15+ minute bus ride as our plane was parked by the new airport under construction. I thought Istanbul airport was bad for seating, this airport made that place look like the greatest place ever. My final suggestion don't come here, maybe once the new airport is opened it might improve, but if they keep the same staff and run the new airport like this current one it too will be a place to avoid.