Riyadh airport flights broadly back to normal after days of disruption

King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh has largely returned to normal operations following a series of disruptions over the past few days. On Friday morning, flight tracking website Flightradar24 noted that 63 flights had been delayed, accounting for 18 percent of all departures, while 44 flights were cancelled, representing 13 percent of the total. This marked a significant improvement from the day before, when 164 delays (42 percent of flights) and 167 cancellations (43 percent) were reported on Thursday.

On Friday morning, flights are projected to depart on time. Prior to that, the airport was suspended on Wednesday morning following Houthi attacks. The disruption continued into Thursday, as several flights were affected.

Among the cancelled flights, Emirates flight EK820 experienced several hour-long delays on both Wednesday and Thursday before being cancelled on Friday, with a rescheduled departure on Saturday. Flydubai flight FZ848 faced delays on Thursday but is now scheduled to resume service on Saturday. Additionally, several flights bound for India, including Air India flight AI2214 to Mumbai and IndiGo flight IGO74 to Bengaluru, as well as Air India Express flight IX896 to Bengaluru, have been cancelled.

Flyadeal, a low-cost airline, also cancelled several domestic flights, such as F3111 to Jeddah and F323 to Abha. The airport's disruption was triggered by drone and missile strikes on King Khalid International Airport and Abha International Airport in southern Saudi Arabia, which resulted in three deaths and 36 injuries. Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attacks and further damage to the region.