Trip Reports - Air Arabia (mideast LCC) SHJ - RUH

On my recent trip to Riyadh from Dubai I decided to try Air Arabia. Air Arabia flies out of Sharjah International Airport in Sharjah, the emirate to the north of Dubai. It's been getting quite a lot of press, and there seems to be quite a potential for LCCs in the mideast right now.

First, the price difference between Air Arabia and EK, my preferred carrier, was considerable. Roundtrip on Air Arabia was about AED 600 vs. AED 1500 on EK. There was an even greater price differential for flights to Kuwait, which I am taking in a few days.

I had no idea how far the Sharjah airport was from Dubai. I was leaving on a Friday, with a 5:00 p.m. departure. I hailed a taxi on Sheikh Zayed Road, across from the Emirates Towers, around 2:30 p.m. to give plenty of time for unexpecteds. On a friend's advice, I just said "airport" when I got in, then once we were on the road and the meter was running, I said, "sorry, Sharjah airport". There was a slight pause from the driver, who was clearly not thrilled. A little later on the driver tried to convince me that I really meant Dubai airport because the Sharjah one was so small.

The trip took 40 minutes or so. We drove out by Festival City, then did a big circuit around Bur Dubai and Deira. Friday afternoon was fairly quiet and the trip went quickly with little traffic, but I don't know how the traffic would be at other times. I've had some trips to or from Sharjah via other routes that took hours.

The airport was cooler looking than I expected from the outside, though nothing special inside. There is a small food area. Check-in is off to the right, past security screening, which threw me off a little. Once through the screening, check in was quick though a little unorganized.

An important warning: don't do the VIP lounge deal. They offered me the VIP lounge pass for 50 dirhams which included food and drinks and internet access. Not knowing what to expect, I took it as a hedge against a zoo at the gate area. I was given a lounge invite with a map on the back. I'm pretty good with a map, able to navigate cities throughout the world, but I couldn't find the VIP lounge based on the map. There's some construction going on in the airport, so it may be in a temporary place or something, but the location did not correspond to the map. The lounge was a depressing, empty, unimpressive place. I asked about wifi or internet access, my primary motive for the lounge, and was told they had one computer with net access but it was being used. I went off to the small side sitting room, which had overstuffed brown leather chairs and couches, crooked pictures on the wall, and a little counter of drinks and sandwiches. I had a drink and a sandwich and read a paper to kill 45 minutes or so.

The airport in general was uncrowded. There is a small food court on this side of immigration. Bored in the lounge, I checked out the duty free shop and got a box of siglo v's. I then went to Gate 3, and went through another screening. I am always surprised by how lax the mideast security is, though that comment may stem from the trauma / brainwashing of the TSA more than anything.

After a few minutes of waiting in a crowded gate area full of just about every type of person you can imagine -- a real cover of National Geographic opportunity -- boarding began. I had no idea what was going on during boarding. A few things were mumbled in English and Arabic. My guess is that women were asked to board first, then it seemed to become a free for all with a lot of Saudi men pushing to the front of the wild mob and boarding. I'm not sure why they did that other than being pushy. After a while the mob surged forward and I with it. No one looked at my boarding pass.

Walking down the gangway, I saw the plane was an Airbus A320. The engine on the near wing had a hatch open, showing lots of wires and guts, likely from some maintenance. Several of the men around me seemed to be upset by seeing this; even though I didn't understand the language, their faces were upset. I muttered insha'allah and continued.

Seating was 3-3. I was in 4A as I wanted the window seat to see the setting sun over the Saudi desert during the flight. The seat was surprisingly wide with very generous legroom. I was comfortable.

Take off was on time. We took off, then flew down the coast to Dubai, and right over the Palm Jumeirah banked right to fly over the Gulf. A terrific view of the whole city from my vantage.

The weather was calm for the flight. Once we got over Saudi I was glad I had the window seat as there are quite a bit of interesting features in the desert, from dunes to rock formations.

Landing was fine. Our gate was close to immigration. I got into a short line. When I got to the immigration guy, he asked for the immigration form, and I realized that I had never gotten one on the flight and had not known to ask for one. For some reason the flight attendant looked at me when she handed them out but didn't give me one; I have no idea what her thinking was. The immigration guy waved me away without saying anything, so I slowly walked away and eventually got in the back of a long line of various south asian guys. 40 minutes later I had to explain to a new immigration guy that the airline passed me up for the immigration card, which seemed to satisfy him and he let me through. No hassles from customs, my driver was waiting, and we sped off into the night.

My feeling at this point about Air Arabia is mixed. The flight experience for a short flight was fine, and the price difference makes it a hard-to-refuse option as a small business owner. My biggest concern is the trip to Sharjah Airport from Dubai and the potential for traffic, but saving 1000 dirhams or so makes a slightly longer driver tolerable. Plus, the sleepiness of the Sharjah airport was a somewhat refreshing change from the zoo of Dubai airport, even if in a backwater-ish kind of way. Renovations to the Sharjah airport may make it more appealing. I fly back to Sharjah next week and then have a day trip to Kuwait to solidify my thinking on the airline. If you frequent the local middle east markets and are a budget conscious traveler or business owner it's worth a try.

I've been perusing Air Arabia's website recently and was quite amazed at the number of routes they cover. Thanks for the TR, look forward to hearing about your KWI trip.

Thanks for the trip report! I've also been considering a few flights on Air Arabia. So you're saying they do have assigned seats, and they're observed, so the locals were just battling to the front of the boarding queue because they're locals? I presume a taxi is the only reasonable way to transfer directly from DXB to SHJ?

I honestly have no idea why the Saudis jumped to the front -- it may or may not have been legitimate. There wasn't a lot of communication from the gate agent.

I can't imagine there's any kind of DXB-SHJ shuttle, but a taxi would probably be AED 50 or so.

My flight back from Riyadh left at 6:40 p.m. I gave myself plenty of time to get to the airport, but hit no traffic and no security line.

The check-in for Air Arabia is in the non-Saudia terminal. I was hoping to spend some time picking up Saudi-themed gifts for my kids, but no such luck. There was a small gift shop right before passport control (with nothing interesting), then only a few food stands in an otherwise effectively empty terminal. I had fish and rice from one of the food stations, then surfed on the free wifi for a while until my battery was out. Overall, this is not a great airport to spend time in, especially if you are not flying on an airline with a lounge, though the free wifi is a good bonus.

The flight was delayed about 20 minutes. Boarding was more orderly than the SHJ-RUH route. I had another window seat, this time in the exit row, but by the time we took off it was dark so there wasn't much to see. My neighbors were two Egyptian men who seemed to want to haggle the FA about everything, from having to stow hand luggage (since we were in the exit row), to having to pay for food, to having pay for a second drink, to the exchange rates.

My only negative comment about the airplanes is that they are sometimes not cleaned very well and appear a bit worn.

Immigration at Sharjah was challenging. The lines were short, but the immigration booths were staffed by 20-something Emiratis who seemed more interested in socializing than making sure the lines did not get too long. It took well over a half hour to get through, with only about 6 people in front of me in queue. With such waiting the lines themselves got chaotic, as the middle eastern practice of line cutting was attempted with full ability by many.

By the time I got through my bag was waiting for me at claims. There is money exchange booth on the way out, and also a duty free shop with alcohol, which surprised me since Sharjah is a dry emirate. The final exit leads outside, and a fleet of Sharjah airport taxis was waiting. The initial airport charge is 20 dirhams, which seemed a bit steep. The trip back to the Garhoud area seemed much quicker, only about 20 minutes.

I got to the Le Meridien Fairway at around 10 p.m. or so, I think, caught up on email, consumed the room's quantity of alcohol after being in Riyadh for nearly a week, then passed out, only to wake up at 5:30 a.m. for my daytrip to Kuwait City, also on Air Arabia -- trip report will be forthcoming.

A few hours later I was heading back to the Sharjah airport. I had a cab waiting at 6:00 a.m. for me at the Fairway. The trip again only took twenty minutes or so, though compare to the three minutes to the Dubai airport, which we drove by on the way to Sharjah.

On the way the taxi driver complained about the serious looking traffic lining up coming into Dubai from Sharjah, at least two hours worth at that point -- traffic really is ridiculous in the city.

The Sharjah airport was much more crowded in the morning. I again went through security screening, checked in, and proceeded through immigration. The whole process took about 5 minutes.

Having skipped the VIP lounge rip-off, I proceeded to the food court in the terminal, part of which is under construction and a little unsightly. I had a choice between Chinese food, McDonald's (serving only hamburgers etc., no breakfast) or a Cafe Med or such. I chose the latter. I passed some time watching a lot of scantily clad eastern european gals and the spillover of people from the very small smoking area off to one side.

I set out to find the loo and look around a bit. Unfortunately the two loos in the terminal were overtaken by hordes of Indian Army soldiers working on a U.N. mission; lines were at least 5 deep at all urinals and stalls! I decided to wait for the plane. As I walked around I realized my gate was at the far end of the terminal, through another security screening (I think Gate 8). Once through that extra security, there was a blissfully empty bathroom to use!

Boarding was a bit late. The gate area was fairly empty, which gave me hope since I had been pre-coffee at check-in and had neglected to police the seat assignment; as such I was rewarded with a middle seat. I asked the FA onboard whether it was a full flight, and she replied yes, very full. I sighed. However, after 15 minutes the plane was maybe 1/3 full. The cabin door closed with plenty of empty rows. Made me wonder why a middle seat was assigned at all in this circumstance.

I was on the DEF side of the plane so mostly had a view of the Gulf on the way up to Kuwait. We flew past Kuwait City, then did a 180 before a nice easy descent into the airport.

I had only gotten word of mouth confirmation from a friend that a U.S. citizen didn't need an advance visa, and I wondered at the last minute upon deboarding if that was foolish. Entering the airport I saw a sign for "Visa Issuing". The deal apparently was to take a number, as one would at a deli, and wait. Approx wait time on my ticket, #775, was 25 minutes. I headed over to a cafe, dealt with the almost inevitable queue-cutter-attempter, and had a double espresso. Heading back to the visa counter, a nice guy who had somehow gotten fast tracked through the process gave me his ticket, so I was now #767. I eventually got called, paid my small fee, waited for the guy to hand back my passport, and proceeded to arrivals hall.

I looked around once outside, located the taxis, and headed out. The taxi driver spoke no English and I couldn't understand his Arabic with my limited ability. God-willing we got to my destination, though I still have no idea how.

After a brief drive through the city to see the sites with a friend we had lunch at a mall, the same mall Saddam had apparently bombed during the U.S. invasion in 2003. We had a nice lunch with a view of a marina and the whole city skyline behind.

I had a few hours after lunch before heading back to the airport. I walked around the mall, and was surprised to see a lot of the Kuwaiti girls only wearing a headscarf and not the abaya -- showing off some very fashionable outfits. I passed some time at the Starbucks checking email, then decided to get to the airport early and look around.

To be continued...

I got to the airport plenty early for my flight. The check in area was a little confusing, but I found the right counter eventually. Check-in itself happened in under 1 minute, and I remembered to ask for a window seat.

The KWI airport is much better than the Riyadh airport to kill some time in, though still not spectacular. There are a few restaurants, including a McD's and a PizzaHut combo. Duty free shops are generous, too, and I thought about getting some Arab-style oil-based colognes but didn't know enough about what I was looking at. I bought a few cigars.

We had to wait outside the actual boarding area until well past the boarding time, which presented a crowded situation. When the flight was ready to board we went through security, then instead of being able to wait in the gate area proceeded to board. Boarding was generally well-organized.

The flight back was in the dark, so I couldn't see much, and I dozed on and off.

Arrival at Sharjah was fine. We took a bus a very short distance to the terminal, then proceeded to the same immigration station that I dealt with last night. There was the same problem of many young 25-year old locals socializing more than they were dealing with visitors. Luckily I was in a fast lane and only waited 10 minutes.

Once through immigration I tried to get money out of two ATMs but my card was rejected for some reason. This had happened to me several times in the mideast in general even though my account had plenty of money in it; not sure if these ATMs were on a separate network or what.

As a favor to my host in Dubai (in al Safa) I stopped by duty free and picked up some beer and wine, again surprised that the dry emirate of Sharjah has alcohol at all.

The wait for a taxi was nearly 10 minutes in the midst of a poorly organized, amorphous body of fellow waiters. Once in, we sped off into the night.

In the span of 1 week I took two roundtrip flights on Air Arabia.

The pros:
1) During the right time of day and from the right place in Dubai the trip to Sharjah International is about 20 minutes.
2) Price!
3) Relatively good legroom and seat width.
4) Good network.

The cons:
1) A shabby element to the planes.
2) Travel to and from Sharjah has the potential to be awful.
3) Immigration at Sharjah was a real pain in the arse every time.

Overall, I would certainly fly Air Arabia again. However, I am curious to try some of the other LCCs, and given my Skywards Gold status would prefer EK even with a small premium.

Check it out and post your own report.

ma3asalama...

I can't imagine there's any kind of DXB-SHJ shuttle, but a taxi would probably be AED 50 or so.

There was a shuttle in 2007 - not sure if it still is around as I don't see any note of it on the website. It left from the DXB ticket centre (Al Maktoum Street, Near Clock Tower, Deira) and cost AED 10. I used it when I flew SHJ-KWI in April 2007.

I agree with your assesment of the airline and the lounge at SHJ...I bought that "add-on" and regretted it afterwards.