An airport transfer here is rarely just a ride to a nearby hotel. The airport you land at may be 100 or 450 km from where you are staying, the arrival is often after a long flight, and Makkah has no airport of its own. This page explains which airport serves which city, how pickups and drop-offs are arranged, and what to tell us so the car is there when you come out.
Which airport serves your destination
Makkah has no commercial airport. Visitors to Makkah, including nearly every Umrah pilgrim, fly into King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah and travel about 100 km by road. Madinah has its own airport, Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International, close to the city. Taif has Taif International Airport, a smaller airport in the mountains. Check which of them has a flight for your route before you book a ticket.
Jeddah (JED)
The gateway for Makkah and Jeddah, and the usual route for Madinah and Taif too. See Jeddah Airport taxi for arrivals, departures and the route options from there.
Madinah (MED)
For pilgrims who start in Madinah. See Madinah Airport taxi for the drive to hotels around the Prophet's Mosque and the onward road to Makkah.
Taif (TIF)
For visitors going up to Taif or down to Makkah. See Taif Airport taxi.
How an arrival pickup works
You send us the flight number, the date, the number of passengers and bags, and the hotel or address. We plan the pickup around the flight, not a fixed time, so a delay does not leave a driver waiting or you without one. If your flight is early or late, send a message and we will adjust. After immigration and baggage claim you go to the car, and the journey to your hotel begins.
Send your pickup, destination, date and passengers and we will confirm the vehicle and price.
How a departure drop-off works
For a flight out, tell us the flight number and the time. We work back from your airline's check-in rules, add the driving time and a buffer. The longest buffers are for Makkah to Jeddah and Madinah to Jeddah, where the journey can take one to one and a half hours or four to four and a half hours, and traffic is heavier on Fridays and in the Umrah and Hajj seasons.
From Makkah
Leaving the streets around the Haram can be slow. See Makkah to Jeddah Airport.
From Madinah
If you are flying from Jeddah, see Madinah to Jeddah for the early start it usually requires.
Choosing the vehicle
The right vehicle depends on the passengers and the bags, and on the way home you usually have more of the second. An Executive Sedan takes three passengers and two bags, a Premium SUV five passengers and four bags, and a Luxury Van eight passengers and six bags. For a group bigger than that, we plan more than one vehicle with pickups at the same time. See the fleet.
Combining the transfer with something else
Many arrivals are the start of an Umrah trip, and some pilgrims add Ziyarat on the day they land or leave. If you are moving between the cities afterwards, see intercity transfers. For a complete itinerary, see Umrah transportation.
When the airport is only the first leg
For pilgrims, a landing at Jeddah is rarely the end of the day. It may be followed by a long drive to Madinah, a hotel check-in in Makkah and an Umrah the same night. Think about the whole sequence when you book, not just the airport: how tired will the group be, when will rooms be ready, and is there a prayer you want to catch on arrival? A transfer that looks perfect on paper can be exhausting in practice if it is stacked behind a long flight and a late hotel check-in.
If you are flying in with a tour group, check which parts of the day are already arranged by your operator. Some packages include the airport pickup and others leave it to you. Telling us what is already covered stops us arranging something that duplicates it.
Sending the right flight details
Give the flight number that lands in Saudi Arabia, not the one you departed on. If you are connecting through another country, that is the second flight. Add the date of landing in local time, since a night flight can arrive on a different calendar day from the one on your ticket. If you booked a codeshare, send the operating airline's number if you know it.