The Airport
King Khalid International Airport (KKIA), also known as Riyadh Airport (RUH), serves the city of Riyadh. It is the second largest airport in the country after Jeddah Airport. The airport is located north outside the city and is about 35 km (22 mi) from the northern urban areas and about 50 km (31 mi) from Olaya District.
By its nature, the airport is a hub for the Saudi state-owned Saudia Airlines. National budget carriers are flynas and flyadeal. A new airline Riyadh Air (RIA) supported by the sovereign wealth fund PIF is currently being established and will start operations in the near future.
Which Terminals?
The arrival terminal in Riyadh for domestic flights is Terminal 5 – and thus also for domestic connecting flights.
International flights depart from Terminals 1 through 4, with Terminal 4, which will be renovated at the end of 2022, reserved for Saudia Airlines’ international flights. If you arrive at Terminal 5 for a domestic flight and have booked a connecting flight abroad, you will have to leave Terminal 5 and (currently) take a shuttle bus to the terminals for international flights. The shuttle bus comes every few minutes and the trip takes about 10 minutes; you should therefore choose your onward flight accordingly, especially since Terminal 2 may be the terminus for shuttle transportation and the route from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 itself is long and not well signposted, possibly leading to inquiries with airport staff.
How to Get to the City?
To get from KKIA Airport to the city, you can take a limousine cab (usually a larger black Ford sedan), which costs about SAR 120 to Olaya Street; the sedans are well-maintained and the drivers pleasantly reserved. The closer you get to the city center, the heavier the traffic becomes. These limousines are stationed only at the airport, so they cannot be booked for trips in the city.
A regular cab service from the airport to the city is also available. The price for a ride of about 50 km to Olaya Street is about SAR 70 – 100. For destinations well south of this, expect the fare to double. Before boarding a cab, please make sure it is an official and licensed cab (SAFWA Taxi Company). To identify them, the airport logo must be displayed in the vehicle. Official cabs are metered and have flat rates. Ride-on-demand providers Uber, Bolt and Careem are available at RUH Airport.
Riyadh Airport Terminal 5 is connected to the Riyadh Metro Yellow Line 4, but it will be operational only in the next future – hopefully. It covers the route between KKIA Airport and King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) with eight stops along the way. At three of these stops, there are transfer options to Line 6 (Purple Line). At the terminus KAFD, there is an option to transfer to Line 1 (Blue Line),which goes towards the city center (Olaya District).
The Project of King Salman International Airport
In November 2022, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman presented the plan for the construction of one of the largest airports in the world. The planned King Salman International Airport, with six parallel runways and a passenger handling capacity of around 120 million travellers in 2030, is to be adjacent to and to include King Khalid Int’l Airport.
