Originally Posted by
haapalainen
I flew Lufthansa A333 on their FRA-DMM-BAH route and back a couple of times in 2017. One had to stay on the plane during the stop in DMM with alcohol and magazines hidden in the overhead bins. No need for a Saudi visa though. And the flight time between DMM and BAH was not much more than 20 minutes. LH has since changed their routing and currently flies to DMM via KUW.
In the early 90’s the Muscat flight went via Dhahran and the crews had to shut all the bars when they entered Saudi airspace and account for all empties etc. The real problem was if the aircraft went tech at Dhahran, which happened to a colleague of mine. Duty free bought in Muscat was confiscated and if I recall correctly the passengers had to stay in the terminal overnight.