The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has distinct regulatory frameworks: for the public sector and the private sector.
How BIMCO defines “holiday”
BIMCO follows a well-established legal definition derived from a 1979 London Arbitration Award. Under this, a “holiday” is any day officially declared or decreed as such by a competent authority, regardless of whether work has actually been carried out or not. For the purposes of science, the decisive factor is advertising, not practice.
This is where the uncertainty around holidays in Saudi Arabia comes in, and we are receiving an increasing number of inquiries about what constitutes holiday for business purposes and late fines.
We’ve updated our Laytime guide with details. If you are a BIMCO member, you can log in to access the guide in our contractual advice library.
Source: Bimco, https://www.bimco.org/news-insights/bimco-news/2026/05/13-saudi-holidays/
