Riyadh airport extends suspension after weekend attacks
Saudi Arabia's civil aviation body has extended the suspension of operations at King Khalid airport in the wake of deadly attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, without specifying when they might resume.
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RIYADH: The skies above the Saudi capital Riyadh were largely empty on Monday (Oct 12) after deadly attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on the city's airport, with about 60 per cent of scheduled flights expected to be cancelled, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's second-busiest airport after Jeddah, cancelled 99.7 per cent of all scheduled flights on Sunday, Cirium data showed. More than a third of flights scheduled across the kingdom were not expected to operate on Monday, while flight tracking website FlightRadar24 estimated cancellations at Riyadh airport of about 78 per cent.
The Saudi capital's airport remained closed on Sunday after an attack that killed one person and injured nearly a dozen others. The strike followed another attack claimed by the Houthis a day earlier that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300.
The attacks marked one of the most significant disruptions to Saudi civil aviation in years, forcing airlines across Europe and Asia to suspend services. The Federal Aviation Administration told US airlines on Sunday to exercise caution when flying to or over Saudi Arabia.
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Lufthansa Group has cancelled all flights to Riyadh until Oct 16, while Air France-KLM has extended a previous suspension of services to and from the Saudi capital until the end of the month.
Saudi Arabia's civil aviation body on Monday extended the suspension of operations at King Khalid in the wake of attacks, without specifying when operations would resume.
"The General Authority of Civil Aviation has announced the extension of the suspension of operations at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh in order to complete the necessary procedures to verify the safety of the facilities and their operational readiness," it said.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman on Monday said recent developments required a serious response, in remarks made after multiple fatal attacks by the Houthis on Riyadh airport and across the kingdom.
"The events of recent weeks are serious, our response must be equally serious," the minister told an energy conference in Riyadh.
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