EurostarVA From Bahrain, joined May 2002, 1262 posts, RR: 11 Posted (5 years 3 months 1 week 4 hours ago) and read 2631 times:
I have flown with Saudi Arabian Airlines before and I decided to create my first trip report on Airliners.net as I travel very often and also enjoy reading other people's accounts of their flights.
I decided to go on a business trip to Riyadh from Dammam, last Sunday 1st of August departing and returning the same day. Everything was decided on short notice two days prior to the 1st of August and I had originally intended to book the flight on Saturday, July 31st but there were absolutely no seats on any of the seven outbound and inbound flights.
For those of you who are unaware, the weekend in Saudi Arabia is Thursday/Friday while Saturday-Wednesday are business days. This is why I was surprised there were no seats on the first business day in any direction although the month of August and higher business travel may have contributed to the lack of seats.
OUTBOUND FLIGHT
SV1139 DMM-RUH AUG 1 07:00-08:00 MD90
BOARDING/CHECK-IN
The company had made available my boarding card the previous day so thankfully I timed my arrival in the airport in time for boarding, which was indicated on the boarding card as 06:10. I found this surprising as long haul flights are not that well-prepared for boarding. In fact, the longest time reserved for boarding I had experienced is 45 minutes on a long haul flight operated by a Boeing 747. My guess is that Saudi Arabian times its boarding to accomodate the local population being late for literally anything and this would explain Saudi Arabian's good ontime record. Boarding was quick and in no time all the passengers where seated waiting for about 20 minutes for pushback. The muslim "Travel Dua'a", or travel prayer, was recited on the inflight announcement system as the aircraft taxiied to the runway. This is standard on every domestic and international Saudi Arabian flight.
I did not take photos as I did not have a handy digital camera and I also suspected that photography was not permitted. Perhaps this explains the lack of photos taken in Saudi Arabia on airliners.net? The above is a photo of an SV MD-90 in Dubai International Airport.
INFLIGHT
During the 40 minute hop, the passengers were offered refreshments although a light morning snack would have been nice. I was particularly pleased with how quite the MD90 cabin is during takeoff and inflight.
Although Arab travelers are known to be needy, I can only agree with the MD90s local reputation of having an uncomfortable cabin. I needed to be careful getting into and leaving my window seat as the overhead bins were very low. It does seem to be that it is only a matter of time before these aircraft, which have been problematic to Saudi Arabian due to their lack of performance in hot and high airports, are phased out and replaced with more suitable aircraft (culturally and operationally).
As is the case with every Saudi Arabian flight I previously took, the crew did not look like a team. There is always a strange divide between Saudi cabin crew (all male) and female expatriate cabin crew, mostly philipinas. At times they look demoralized and unmotivated. This is only expected considering the difficult clientele and the local religious interpretation of limiting genders mixing. What a far cry for female cabin crew working at Emirates and living in Dubai!
ONTIME PERFORMANCE / ARRIVAL
The flight took off on time and arrived 10 minutes earlier than expected. King Khaled International Airport opened in 1983 and is the largest in the world in terms of surface area. Publications were published about the marvels of its architecture and interior luxury. Have a look at these photos:
In five minutes I was greeted at the arrivals hall and walked straight to the company car. All in all, it took less than 10 minutes to walk off the aircraft and into the car, a great plus for an airport as large as Riyadh.
INBOUND FLIGHT
SV1162 RUH-DMM AUG 1 23:30-00:30* MD90
After a long day of meetings and a dinner at a friend's house, I took a taxi and headed back to Riyad's spacious King Khaled International Airport, arriving deliberately 40 minutes prior to departure as I suspected the airport not to be busy. As was the case with my last trip to Riyadh, I noticed the air conditioning inside the terminal was not working or was not cooling sufficiently, how unfortunate when the outside temperature is 38'C !
BOARDING/CHECK-IN
Check-in was not a pleasant experience as when it was finally my time to get my boarding pass, people around me decided to stand at the counter at my right and left sides, pleading for seats on the day's last flights to Jeddah and Dammam. I was amused to see the agent put me on hold for 10 minutes while attending to people initially behind me, but I was not surprised and felt my comfirmed booking will land me the boarding card. Finally, the agent said out loud "Dammam flight is closed and this passenger, pointing to me, is the last person to be issued a boarding card, with an upgrade to first as he deserves it".. Typical check-in scenerio! Being patient paid off and I ran to the boarding gate on time and sat in seat 2A in the Boeing MD-90.
INFLIGHT
Having been upgraded to first class, I presumed I would be served a light meal on the 40 minute hop but all I received is a complimentary tooth-picked date (with no napkin!!) and a glass of orange juice. The flight attendant was Arab (probably of Syrian or Lebanese origin) and expectedly, made no effort to smile or look motivated during the flight. Perhaps she was looking forward to sleeping?
ONTIME PERFORMANCE / ARRIVAL
Arrival was also on time at 00:30 and I was in my car 4 minutes after disembarking.
My overall rating of Saudi Arabian is neutral, not bad but it is also not good. I hope that the government will go ahead with its pledged approval for a privately-owned airline to take off soon (NetJets?). This is a country where where a single airline provides air transportation services for its 16-million population. I don't know if there is any other state-owned flag carrier in the world enjoying such a monopoly. I believe competition will bring more frequencies, improve onboard service as well as increase point-to-point routes within the Kingdom, in addition to increasing passenger traffic!
TriStar500 From Germany, joined Nov 1999, 4639 posts, RR: 54 Reply 1, posted (5 years 3 months 1 week 2 hours ago) and read 2545 times:
Thank you very much for your report, it was certainly interesting and a joy to read. I am looking forward to more contributions from you, because there are hardly any reports from SV or Saudi-Arabia in general.
Homer: Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!
Jsnww81 From United States, joined Jan 2002, 1711 posts, RR: 22 Reply 2, posted (5 years 3 months 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 2500 times:
Nice to see an entry from a corner of the world and an airline we don't usually see reports from.
In browsing the latest Saudi Arabian timetable, I see they operate widebodies (mostly A300s) to quite a few smaller cities in Saudi Arabia (Taif, Medinah, etc.) Interesting that you wound up on MD90s on the Dammam route - I always thought Dammam was one of the larger cities in the country.
The777Man From United States, joined Jul 1999, 3685 posts, RR: 54 Reply 4, posted (5 years 3 months 6 days 21 hours ago) and read 2483 times:
Nice report!
I flew FCO-CDG about five years ago on SV 777 and it was a great flight and I found the cabin crew very friendly. I think that on a 40 minute flight and at the time of day you travelled, it's not so likely to get a meal on most airlines today although in First class they should have had something at least.
Patroni From Luxembourg, joined Aug 1999, 1403 posts, RR: 22 Reply 5, posted (5 years 3 months 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 2391 times:
Hi Sam,
nice to see a trip report from you... and interesting to read that you live in Saudi now? Was Montreal too cold for you at this time of the year?
SV really seems to be a far cry away from MEA Middle East Airlines (Lebanon)">ME, whose service I enjoyed last year on a flight to BEY....
PIA747SV747 From United States, joined Aug 2004, 110 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (5 years 3 months 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 2285 times:
I flew SV 747, A300, 743 and 741 last year. JFK-JED-MED-JED-RUH-LHE-DAM-JED-JFK
I loved Saudi Airlines. Probably one of the best Ive flown on. Ill be trying Emirates now!
PanAmerican From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 383 posts, RR: 8 Reply 7, posted (5 years 3 months 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 2249 times:
Hey, thanks for posting this. Defenitely interesting to read about an SV flight for a change. Could you post a trip report on an international segment on them next time you get to go? That would be nice.
I'd like to try SV out, presumably from FRA to either SIN or KUL some time, but unfortunately they don't have any airline partners for me to collect miles with. Do they offer stopover programmes in RUH? I guess otherwise its quite hard to visit the Saudi Arabia...
EurostarVA From Bahrain, joined May 2002, 1262 posts, RR: 11 Reply 8, posted (5 years 3 months 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 2160 times:
PanAmerican,
Unfortunately, SV would not be my top choices for travel outside the Kingdom.. I usually fly with KLM or Turkish Airlines. I am flying TK on the
BAH-IST-TXL and MXP-IST-BAH segments very soon and will write a trip report about that.
As for stopover programs with SV, I doubt they exist as the government just started making tourist visas available (this is a country under transformation now). But I guess you could ask an SV booking office.
Nevertheless, it is interesting to see your interest in visiting Riyad considering the recent and unrelenting random shooting of westerners in the Saudi capital.
Jeddah would be much more interesting to visit and has been so far immune to attacks on westerners.
Patroni:
Yes I work in Saudi now but my plans are to return to Canada when I gain good work experience here (which is legendary in my field of construction and development). Send me an email to hussamaali@hotmail.com about your life, career in Luxembourg, etc.
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From Bahrain, joined May 2002, 1262 posts, 
From Germany, joined Nov 1999, 4639 posts, 
I am looking forward to more contributions from you, because there are hardly any reports from SV or Saudi-Arabia in general. 
From United States, joined Jan 2002, 1711 posts, 
From Luxembourg, joined Aug 1999, 1403 posts, 
PA
From Canada, joined Jun 2003, 320 posts, 
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