Saudi Arabia’s aviation authority has criticised an online global survey that ranked Jeddah airport as the second worst in the world.
General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) spokesman Khalid Al Khaibari said the survey should be considered because it was conducted by a Canadian blog writer who had not visited the airport and the process was not scientific.
King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah was ranked the second worst airport to sleep in the world by website theguidetosleepinginairports.com earlier this week.
In a separate ranking, the website also said Jeddah had the worst airport, generally, in the Middle East.
“The main terminal is fairly lackluster. It isn’t overly clean, crowds can be a problem, and the services for travelers are in short supply,” the blog said.
“Rude immigration officers and lengthy queues do little to improve the traveler experience. Chairs are limited, uncomfortable … Things might improve in mid-2015 when a new airport is expected to be completed.”
The Middle East list also rated two other Saudi airports, Dammam King Fahd International Airport and Riyadh King Khalid International Airport fourth and fifth worst, respectively.
The rankings were released days before a GACA source revealed there were an average 20 mid-air near crashes in Saudi air space each year – seven times the global average.
Defending Saudi airports as adequate, Al Khaibari said the website rankings were a personal view.
“King Abdul Aziz International Airport has all the services needed. We don’t deny there are some negatives that we hope will be removed when the new airport begins operating in the middle of next year,” he was quoted as saying by Arab News.
In further defending the Jeddah airport, Al Khaibari said it had managed more than 1.7 million passengers on more than 4000 flights during the recent eight-week Haj and Umrah period.
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