King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh has told passengers to check flight status with their airlines before travelling to the airport, as cancellations and delays mounted for a second day on October 8.
The disruption hits the Saudi capital’s main gateway as airlines expand there. The airport handled about 3.9mn passengers in July 2025 alone and is the base for Saudia, flynas and Riyadh Air, which has been adding routes across Asia and Europe. Foreign carriers are also building up Riyadh services, with flyadeal launching Mumbai flights this month and Singapore Airlines scaling back its planned Riyadh launch. The southwestern gateway of Abha, which serves the Asir mountain region, was also hit.
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said drone and missile attacks on King Khalid and Abha International Airport on October 6 and 7 killed three people and injured 36, and damaged facilities at both airports. At Riyadh, one Sudanese resident was killed and eight people were injured. At Abha, two residents, one Moroccan and one Algerian, were killed and 28 people were injured. GACA said it was working with the relevant authorities to assess the damage and confirm the safety of the facilities.
Flight tracking service Flightradar24 showed 114 delayed departures at Riyadh, or 29% of the schedule, and 20 cancellations by early afternoon local time on October 8. Cancelled services included Saudia’s flight to Dubai and Turkish Airlines’ flight to Istanbul, while Saudia’s Cairo service and Yemenia’s flight to Aden were delayed by more than two hours. Flightradar24 later reported the airport had closed again, with no take-offs for more than 90 minutes.
Yemen’s Houthi movement said on October 8 it had targeted the airport with a ballistic missile. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a ballistic missile north of Riyadh. Saudi authorities have not confirmed any damage from the latest incident.
The US embassy in Riyadh advised travellers to expect possible flight cancellations, airspace closures and travel disruption, and to check flight status directly with their airline and the airport.
King Khalid International Airport opened in 1983 and is operated by Riyadh Airports Company. It handled a single-day record of 142,538 passengers on July 31, 2025.
Image: Kayhan Ertugrul via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0