Jeddah Airport Terminal 1: A Huge Improvement

I'm curious about this door with no handle...is there an alternative exit or do you have to get someone to let you through? If there's a different exit, did you find where the broken door opens to? It doesn't look physically broken and something like that is easy to fix, which makes me think it's intentional.

@ breathesrain -- There was a hallway that also went in the direction of reception and the restaurant not far away from this door, but there was no signage for it.

Wi-Fi was not working in the terminal when I was there October 2022. And wifi was working only in part of Saudia lounge (that part was Full and the rest was empty).

Welcome to the Hotel California . . . you can checkout but you can never leave.

When I was there last month, the airport Wi-Fi is only working when you are using a Saudi phone number to register.

Beijing Terminal 3 is the same design albeit even bigger at 986000 metres sq ( 10.6 million sq feet )

wifi didn't work for me either during f1 (march 2023). it was very strange.

The Govt like to know who's using their Internets.

Without access to reception, and with no WiFi, I don't think you can even check out.

You would think it unlikely many non-Saudi's would visit or even transfer Jeddah so I doubt the WiFi issue would affect many people.

Saudi Arabia are making a huge push for increased tourist travel and lots of foreigners are already visiting. This is either a local IT issue or (counter-intuitively) a restriction placed on visitors using Wifi in the airport.

Ben, I thought there's a Plaza Premium Lounge in Terminal 1 International for Priority Pass. No?

Chris W, Jeddah is where many (most?) Hajj visitors land, so nope.

Don’t forget the extremely cool high speed train station connected to the airport.

Trains to downtown Jeddah aren’t really frequent enough for plane arrivals/ departures unless you’re lucky / willing to wait, but it’s 30 minutes to Mecca and 1:45 to Medina on a 300 kph train.

We went to Medina for the day & it was excellent.

Very subpar compared to ME3 hubs now that AUH is upgraded.
The bathrooms are always in a dreadful state and the western toilets have no seats (only in the disabled cubicles).

i hope theres a free wifi in the airport

Compared to the old Jeddah Airport which was consistently ranked THE worst airport in the world, this is a monumental step forward. But like most of the country, things don’t work.
Another ridiculous aspect of Saudi airport Wi-Fi , then it’s actually working, is you have to have a Saudi telephone number to receive a text message with a PIN in order to log on. Even in the international terminal. Extremely ridiculous because if you are transiting or just arriving why on earth would you have a Saudi mobile number!?!? If you did, you wouldn’t need Wi-Fi ! So you are absolutely stuck in the airport, cannot call up an Uber (which is excellent, btw) and without many communications at all. I enter/exit the international terminal at least 1x per month and it drives me crazy.
Again, a very typical thing in Saudi Arabia where there is no thought out into anything. As long as it looks nice on the surface that’s all that matters.

I think it is about your expectations. You seem to be comparing this airport to other airports in the Middle East of which there is no comparison. It seems you are comparing the basic services to what you would find in first world places. It is no surprise that the wifi did not work but it is certainly an improvement over the other terminal. I think there are more important issues to address over the wifi.

The handle-less door thing, often with fake scratches - it's a Saudi cultural oddity / superstition - look it up 😉

The immigration hall is enormous though very few customs desks were staffed when we were there in March '23. But we transited quickly. The real slowness we had was picking up our car from Budget...

My wife was an oil kid that lived in Jeddah in the early 1990s. If you want western feel the Jeddah is the Saudi city for you. We also visited Dammam on our trip, it felt very different than Jeddah

Ben, appreciate you visiting and giving an on-site update on the Jeddah airport.

There is. Quite small and somehow sad. I went there just for curiosity as i could enter Saudia lounge

How much time it takes to travel two gates which are in the two corners of terminal 1 for international flight. say arriving from Istanbul by Turkish airlines ( Flt no TK 94)and catching flight to Mumbai (Bombay) by Saudi Arabian Airlines (Flt no SV 770)