Saudi Arabia
Saudi rules pay 50 SDR for a delay of three to six hours and 150 SDR beyond that. Denied boarding pays 200% of the ticket, and a cancellation pays 50% or 75% of it depending on how much notice you were given.
Check your own flight against the GACA customer protection rules →Who it covers
- Flights departing Saudi Arabia, and flights to the Kingdom on a Saudi carrier.
- The cancellation and denied-boarding figures are percentages of your ticket, so the fare you paid decides the payment.
- Delay figures are fixed in Special Drawing Rights and do not depend on the fare.
What it pays
| Distance or situation | Per passenger |
|---|---|
| Delay of 3 to 6 hours | 50 SDR |
| Delay over 6 hours | 150 SDR |
| Denied boarding | 200% of the ticket |
| Cancellation, more than 14 days' notice | 50% of the ticket |
| Cancellation, less notice than that | 75%, rising to 150% inside 24 hours |
What triggers it
Delay from three hours
A lower entry point than Thailand and the same as Europe. Past five hours you may also elect to treat the flight as cancelled, which switches you into the cancellation percentages — often the better outcome on an expensive ticket.
Denied boarding
Double the ticket value, computed from what you actually paid. Because it is a percentage rather than a band, an expensive ticket produces a large figure here.
Cancellation, by notice given
Half the ticket with more than fourteen days' warning, three quarters with less, and 150% where you were told less than twenty-four hours before departure.
Duty of care — separate from compensation
Meals and refreshments scaled to the wait, communication, and hotel accommodation with transport where the delay runs long or overnight, alongside the choice of re-routing or a refund.
The refusals airlines send, and what answers them
“Extraordinary circumstances”
Recognised, on the familiar pattern: outside the carrier's activity and outside its control, with the burden on the airline. It does not remove the care obligations.
“We need your ticket price”
That is fair — the cancellation and denied-boarding figures are percentages. Give them the fare and hold them to the percentage rather than to a flat offer.
“You were only delayed five hours”
Then consider electing to treat the flight as cancelled, which the rules allow past five hours, and claim the percentage instead of the 150 SDR.
Enforcement
The General Authority of Civil Aviation runs a passenger complaints service and publishes carrier compliance. Complaints go to GACA directly where the airline does not resolve it.
How long you have
Two years in practice for a claim arising out of carriage. GACA expects the airline to have been given a chance to answer first.
Primary sources
Read the law itself rather than anyone's summary of it, this one included. Every link below was checked on 12 September 2026.
By situation, rather than by statute
If you would rather start from what happened than from which law applies: my flight was cancelled · they are blaming a strike · they are blaming a technical fault · I was denied boarding · I am stuck at the airport
The other statutes
- EU261 compensation — EU261
- UK261 compensation — UK261
- Israeli Aviation Services Law — the Aviation Services Law
- US flight delay rules — US DOT rules
- Canada APPR compensation — the APPR
- Montreal Convention 1999 — the Montreal Convention
- Russia — Article 120 of the Air Code
- Türkiye — the SHY-Passenger Regulation
- India — the DGCA CAR
- Brazil — ANAC Resolution 400
- Thailand — the CAAT passenger rules
- Indonesia — Ministerial Regulation PM 89