Airlines halt Riyadh flights as Houthis claim airport hit

Lufthansa Group Deutsche Lufthansa AG and several Indian carriers suspended flights to Riyadh on Thursday, October 8. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said they had hit King Khalid International Airport with a ballistic missile and repeated threats against airlines using Saudi airspace. Flight-tracking data showed that roughly 40 to 50 percent of the airport's scheduled flights were cancelled.reuters+2

A Lufthansa spokesperson told Reuters the group's airlines would not fly to Riyadh through October 16 because of "current developments in the Middle East". IndiGo InterGlobe Aviation Limited cancelled all Riyadh flights until October 9. Air India and Akasa Air cancelled theirs until October 10, and Air India Express did the same. An Air India flight from Delhi to Riyadh turned back to Delhi in the middle of its trip. Philippine Airlines cancelled its Manila–Riyadh flight scheduled for Thursday and the return flight set for Saturday. Singapore Airlines pushed the launch of its Riyadh service back to March 28, citing the conflict, Bloomberg reported.bloomberg+4

Half of departures grounded

Aviation analytics firm Cirium said 49.7 percent of departures from Riyadh had been cancelled by 1500 GMT, and it expected 31 more cancellations across Saudi airports on Friday. Flightradar24 showed 324 flights, or 41 percent of the day's schedule, cancelled as of 10:10 a.m. EST, according to Al-Monitor. Saudi carriers were hit hardest. Cirium data cited by AGBI showed national carrier Saudia cancelled 70 percent of its Riyadh departures. Riyadh Air said it had paused flights after "an incident at King Khalid airport". The airport told passengers to check their flight status with airlines before travelling.al-monitor+3

Aircraft burned on the ground

A witness and three people briefed on the matter told Reuters they saw smoke rising from a parked aircraft at the airport. Saudi authorities had not confirmed the Houthi claim. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted two missiles fired at Riyadh. Saudi Civil Defence said debris from an interception damaged a kindergarten and a medical clinic.news18+2

Thursday's disruption came after strikes earlier in the week on the Riyadh and Abha airports. Saudi aviation authorities said those attacks killed three foreign nationals and injured 36 people. On Thursday the Houthis called Saudi airspace "a theatre for our military operations" and urged international airlines to avoid the kingdom, except for the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. India's embassy told its citizens in Saudi Arabia to stay indoors as necessary.agbi+3

Economic toll

The Tadawul All-Shares Index fell almost 2 percent on Thursday to its lowest point since January 5. Several year-end events have been cancelled or postponed, including the Red Sea Film Festival. Delta Air Lines ↘ 0.96% plans to launch nonstop Atlanta–Riyadh flights on October 23.agbi+1

"A handful of successful strikes can undermine investor confidence, disrupt aviation and force Riyadh to divert enormous resources towards defence," said Andreas Krieg, an analyst at King's College London.agbi