Key takeaways
- Qatar Airways temporarily suspended flights to and from Riyadh and Dammam on October 12, citing the “current situation” — the first Gulf carrier to pull out.
- On Monday evening, the Houthis claimed a ballistic missile strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport and a drone strike on the Khamis Mushait airbase. The Saudi-led coalition said the missiles were intercepted.
- The Wall Street Journal reports that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been moved between heavily guarded, bunker-equipped palaces since the attacks intensified.
- Tehran said it was ready to help facilitate dialogue between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.
Qatar Airways said on Monday it had temporarily suspended all flights to and from the Saudi cities of Riyadh and Dammam, the first Gulf carrier to stop serving the kingdom as Houthi attacks on Saudi airports intensify. In a travel advisory updated on October 12, the airline told passengers it was “closely monitoring developments in Saudi Arabia in coordination with relevant authorities” and urged travellers to check their flight status online or on its app.
The suspension landed within hours of a fresh round of Houthi claims. On Monday evening, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had fired a ballistic missile at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and launched a drone at the King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, near the Yemeni border, claiming direct hits on both. The Saudi-led coalition said its forces had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi ballistic missile fired toward Riyadh that evening. Explosions were heard across the Saudi capital, and residents received mobile-phone alerts warning of a hostile aerial threat.
The kingdom’s most protected resident, meanwhile, is reportedly on the move. The Wall Street Journal, citing officials familiar with his movements, reported that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has not appeared in public since donating blood at a national drive on Tuesday and is being shuttled between heavily guarded palaces fitted with bunkers, protected by a handpicked security team. It is a striking image of a government at war: the man running the kingdom cannot sleep in the same palace twice.
Against that backdrop, Tehran offered a diplomatic opening. Iranian officials said the country was ready to help facilitate dialogue between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis — an offer that puts Iran in the unusual position of broker in a war it is accused of fuelling.
The weekend’s toll explains the alarm. A Houthi missile strike on King Khalid International Airport on Saturday killed 13 people and wounded 309, according to Saudi officials — the toll was initially reported as 12 and later revised after an injured Indian national died, India’s embassy in Riyadh confirmed — making it the deadliest attack on the kingdom in a decade. A second strike on Sunday killed a Pakistani resident and wounded 11 others. The airport has been closed since the weekend and has now been struck four times in five days. The second Houthi strike on Riyadh airport in two days showed the group can hit the capital’s main gateway at will.
The aviation fallout is spreading fast. Etihad cancelled flights between Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, with Riyadh services grounded until October 19. Lufthansa cancelled all Riyadh flights until October 16, Air France-KLM extended its suspension to the end of the month, and Delta delayed the launch of its Atlanta–Riyadh route — due to start October 23 — all the way to March 2027. Aviation analytics firm Cirium put cancellations across all Saudi airports at 46.4 percent. The US Federal Aviation Administration told American carriers to exercise caution flying to or over Saudi Arabia, and Europe’s EASA widened its airspace warning on Friday. The tit-for-tat is accelerating too: the Houthis said Saudi Arabia carried out 119 strikes on Houthi-held areas in 24 hours, while Yemeni government forces claimed 1,879 attacks on Houthi targets. Turkish President Erdogan condemned the airport strikes, and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman warned the kingdom’s response would be “equally serious.”
Qatar Airways’ decision matters beyond the inconvenience to passengers. European carriers pulling out is one thing; a Gulf neighbour suspending service is a signal that the region’s own confidence in Saudi airspace is cracking. The kingdom is burning through interceptors faster than it can replace them — Saudi Arabia’s interceptor shortage is now the war’s quiet front line — and the Houthis appear to have worked out that they don’t need to win a battle to win the campaign. They just need to make Riyadh’s airport unreliable. Every cancelled flight, every delayed route launch, is a small victory for that strategy.
That is also why the pressure is building on Washington. Donald Trump has said the US may join Saudi strikes on the Houthis after the airport attack killed an American, and the Houthis have threatened the US in return. For the moment, though, the most important departure board in the Gulf is in Doha — and it says Riyadh and Dammam are off limits.
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that 12 people were killed. It has been updated to reflect that the death toll was later revised to 13. October 14, 2026
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