The latest issue of Wizz's in flight magazine is pushing very hard to promote visiting Saudi Arabia as a tourist. No, not as a pilgrim or being a resident... but going for a short visit seeing the sights and doing whatever seems fun to do. The push is not just on the Abu Dhabi subdidiary fleet... but also in the seat back pocket of the UK, Hungary and Malta fleets.
I'd be curious to visit Jeddah, Riyadh or some of the other places... but a tourist visa is expensive (albeit not that difficult to get) and a free 96 hour transit visa requires tickets in and out of Saudi with either Saudia or Flynas.
Wizz probably could be good for Saudi tourism... they are cheap enough that I'd take a punt on visiting Saudi if it included a free or very cheap visa... but not being able to sponsor free 96 hour transit visas makes this a non-starter for me and probably others who might be interested. Is being able to sponsor Saudi transit visas definitely politically impossible ? Does Wizz even need foreign tourists to fill their Saudi flights, or would this be just a bonus ?
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 10th Oct 2023 at 19:25.