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Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels have disrupted air travel in Riyadh, grounding nearly 90% of scheduled flights at King Khalid International Airport over the past week. Between October 8 and October 25, 86% of the 4,736 scheduled flights at Riyadh's airport were canceled, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. The Houthi attacks have targeted the airport, ports and oil facilities, with a particularly deadly strike on October 10 that killed 13 people, making it the deadliest in Saudi Arabia in over a decade.
The airport partially reopened on Sunday after a halt since October 10, with domestic flights resuming from Terminal 1 and international services from Terminal 2. However, the Houthi attacks have prompted international airlines to suspend services to Riyadh until November, while Delta Air Lines has postponed its launch of the Riyadh route until next year.
The disruption has forced the cancellation or postponement of several events in Riyadh, including the kingdom's main investment conference. Over 45% of all scheduled departures from Saudi airports were canceled during the same period, with the peak of cancellations on October 12. Several major airports, including Riyadh, Dammam and Abha, recorded severe disruption, with the Houthis claiming strikes at multiple locations.
Smaller regional airports saw the vast majority of flights canceled, including Najran, where all flights were canceled.
Written by urgent.news from Jerusalem Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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