Emirates Relaunches Saudi Arabia Flights: 28 Weekly Services Offered

Some of Emirates’ shortest flights are once again operating as the airline relaunches services to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This restart is set to take place tomorrow, September 11th, with service to the cities of Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah, and Medina. For those interested in these services and potentially flying on them, let’s take a closer look at the flight details.

Emirates will operate the Airbus A380 on its flights to Jeddah. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

The resumption of service to Saudi Arabia comes shortly before the UAE is set to host the Dubai Expo 2020 trade fair. According to Bloomberg, Saudi Arabia’s decision to allow its citizens to travel to the UAE comes a day after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with UAE leader Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.

Saudi travelers typically mean big business for Dubai and the other emirates of the UAE. Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia’s travel ban had been in place since July, which cut off this source of revenue. Thankfully, that’s all set to change from tomorrow.

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24 weekly flights

Starting on Saturday, September 11th, Emirates will operate 24 weekly flights to Saudi Arabia. This will see the airline fly daily flights to Riyadh, daily A380 flights to Jeddah, daily flights to Dammam, and three weekly flights to Medina.

Emirates will begin the service from September 11th with hopes of capitalizing on Expo 2020 traffic. Photo: GCMap.com

The airline adds that its flights to Riyadh will increase to twice daily from September 16th. While plans are also underway to “boost frequencies across other gateways” by the end of September, no other specifics were released. Here are the following flight details as provided by an Emirates statement:

• Riyadh: Flight EK2817 will operate daily, departing Dubai at 16:40, landing at King Khalid International Airport at 17:40. For the return to Dubai, EK2818 leaves Riyadh at 20:10 and arrives back in Dubai at 23:20.
• Jeddah: Emirates will operate EK2803 daily, departing Dubai at 16:00. Flights will land at King Abdulaziz International Airport at 18:00 local time. EK2804 departs Jeddah at 20:00 and lands in Dubai at 01:00hrs the next day.
• Dammam: EK2821 will be a daily service, leaving Dubai at 20:50 and arriving at King Fahd International Airport at 21:20. Returning to Dubai, EK2822 leaves Dammam at 22:45, arriving at its destination at 01:00 the next day.
• Medina: The least frequent service of the group, EK2809 to Medina, will fly just three times weekly. This flight departs from Dubai at 16:30, arriving at Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz Airport at 18:00. EK2810 leaves Medina at 20:00, arriving back in Dubai at 23:40.

All times listed above are local.

Travel and entry requirements

Although flights are resuming, things are still far from going “back to normal.” Indeed, both Saudi Arabia and the UAE require preflight COVID testing.

Except for Jeddah, the airline’s 777s will be tasked with operating many of the resumed services. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

For those heading to Saudi Arabia, all non‑Saudi nationals (except children eight years old and below) must present a negative COVID‑19 PCR test completed not later than 72 hours before the scheduled departure for the Kingdom.

Heading to Dubai from Saudi Arabia? All passengers traveling to the emirate from any point of origin must hold a negative COVID‑19 RT‑PCR test certificate for a test taken no more than 72 hours before departure. This includes Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries.

With the resumption of these flights, will you be flying to or from Saudi Arabia with Emirates any time soon? Share your plans with us by leaving a comment!

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