34% of Saudi Flights Grounded as Foreign Carriers Hold Off Until Late October

Roughly 34% of scheduled departures from Saudi Arabia — 322 of 941 flights — were canceled or did not operate on Monday, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium, as Iran-aligned Houthi rebel attacks on the kingdom continued.

The figure marks an improvement from Sunday, when more than half of all scheduled flights in the kingdom did not fly. King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh reopened Sunday after a week-long shutdown, following an October 10 attack on the airport that killed 12 people and injured more.

Riyadh still led all Saudi airports in cancellations Monday at 66%, per Cirium data. Abha followed at 48%, Dammam at 31%, and Jeddah at 15%.

Which airlines are flying, and which are not?

Saudi carriers have moved first. Saudia, Flynas, Riyadh Air, and Flyadeal have resumed service at King Khalid International. Foreign carriers have not: flydubai, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways extended suspensions to Riyadh, Dammam, and Abha through October 24.

Qatar Airways has also cut Jeddah service from seven daily flights to four. The U.S. Embassy has issued a security alert warning of missile and drone attacks and possible airport closures.

What does this change for Riyadh's events calendar?

The disruption has already reached the kingdom's fourth-quarter event pipeline, the engine Riyadh has built its hotel and tourism strategy around:

• The Future Investment Initiative has been postponed to next year.
• The EU-Gulf Cooperation Council summit, scheduled for October 24 in Riyadh, has been postponed with no new date set.
• The Six Kings Slam tennis tournament has moved to December.

Each postponement carries hotel cancellations and lost MICE spending in its wake — revenue that does not return when a flight schedule does. The longer foreign carriers stay out, the more Riyadh's events-led fourth quarter risks becoming a lost quarter for hotels and for business, sporting, and leisure events.

Andrew Charlton of Aviation Advocacy told Skift: if non-Saudi airlines stay away, Saudi and Gulf carriers will expand to fill the space — but the open question is whether demand holds as attacks continue.

That is the variable operators and event organizers will now watch: restored capacity matters only if delegates, fans, and business travelers are willing to board.