Originally Posted by
Fredrik74
Thanks for reporting on Saudia and Saudi. I must admit it doesn't look too bad and I wouldn't rule out trying the route myself. For some reason I thought Jeddah was the primarty transit point for Saudia but I'm not sure it would have changed much in terms of airport quality or ease of transfer.
Jeddah is indeed the primary hub afaik (mostly due to the proximity of Islam's holy cities) but Riyadh is a close second.
This was my first time flying Saudia and obviously I can't comment too much about JED - but what I heard the transit experience is quite bad there, as is the terminal. For me this was the biggest reason to route through RUH instead of JED (I could also have chosen MED as there were seasonal flights out of MXP and a quick connection to CGK from there, but as my trip was just shortly before Hajj season I opted out of that as I wasn't sure how easy the transit would be/what would happen in case of IRROPS due to Saudia prioritising pilgrims on routes to/from MED).
That said, Jeddah's brand new terminal should be ready now as far as I know and will see full service soon - so that should greatly improve transits there. I *might* take a flight in winter to somewhere warm in Asia to test it out if prices stay this low ex-Rome.