Lufthansa Group and three Indian airlines will suspend flights to Riyadh, they said Thursday, as Yemen’s Houthis renewed threats against airlines after claiming an attack on the Saudi capital’s airport. A Lufthansa spokesperson told Reuters the German group’s airlines would suspend flights to Riyadh through October 16 due to "current developments in the Middle East”.
India’s largest airline IndiGo said it had cancelled all flights to and from Riyadh until October 9.
Air India and Akasa Air also told Reuters they had cancelled all flights to and from the Saudi capital until October 10. Air India added that a flight from Delhi to Riyadh returned to the Indian capital Thursday, while Akasa Air cancelled two scheduled services.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they had struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a ballistic missile, although there was no immediate confirmation from Saudi authorities.
Saudi authorities said on Wednesday that three people had been killed this week in strikes on Riyadh airport and Abha airport in the southwest. Several dozen international flights bound for Riyadh Thursday evening have been cancelled, data from global flight tracker FlightRadar24 showed.
Data compiled by aviation analytics firm Cirium showed 49.7% of departures from Riyadh airport had been cancelled by 1500 GMT, with a further 31 cancellations expected across Saudi airports Friday.
Earlier, a commercial plane belonging to state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) was heavily damaged by fire while parked at a terminal in Riyadh airport Thursday, three people briefed on the matter said, attributing the damage to either shrapnel or a direct hit by a projectile. The sources said that the plane was believed to be empty of passengers at the time, but could not rule out any injuries as a result of the incident. Saudi Arabia’s government media office, its civil aviation authority and Saudia Airlines did not respond to e-mailed requests for comment.