The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has broadened the area of Saudi Arabian airspace in which it advises airlines to avoid operations after Yemen’s Iran‑aligned Houthi forces attacked Riyadh airport. Updating a conflict‑zone bulletin first issued on 30 September, the regulator said recent strikes demonstrated the Houthis’ capacity and intent to target deeper sites within Saudi territory, including the capital. EASA has added a north‑western Saudi region to the advisory.
Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority confirmed that three Saudi nationals were killed and several people injured in two attacks on King Khalid International Airport on Thursday. The Houthis have issued renewed threats against airlines flying to Saudi Arabia and said they had struck the capital’s airport with two cruise missiles.
EASA warned that repeated missile and drone attacks, together with the activation of air‑defence systems, increase the risk of misidentifying civil aircraft and expose them to missile and drone overflights, interception activity and falling debris. OPSGROUP, a membership‑based organisation of nearly 10,000 aviation professionals, issued a “do not fly” warning for Saudi Arabia, advising members to avoid operations entirely, including the use of Saudi airports as en route alternates.
Following Thursday’s attacks, the Lufthansa Group and three Indian airlines announced they would suspend flights to Riyadh in the coming days. King Khalid International Airport is Saudi Arabia’s second‑busiest hub after Jeddah. According to the General Authority for Statistics, the airport handled 296,800 flights in 2025, about 813 per day. FlightRadar24 reported that 131 flights to and from Riyadh had been cancelled by 13:05 GMT on Friday, following hundreds of cancellations the previous day.
