Originally Posted by
Thanh Viet
For both religious & operational reason: The Kingdom is so close from DXB and it is forbidden to serve alcohol or at least have the containers with alcohol open when you enter Kingdoms air zone...
I think this is what EK wants to make you believe. In reality, I am sure it is an EK corporate decision not to serve alcohol on those flights. Many other (Western) airlines serve alcohol right until landing in Saudi and pop the bottles right after takeoff. So it certainly is not an airspace-based rule.