Saudi Arabia keeps its flagship events on as airport attacks test the nerves of foreign carriers and executives

Riyadh’s main airport was attacked again yesterday, which comes as the Kingdom prepares to host major international business events this month. A missile hit the complex housing King Khalid International’s domestic terminals 3 and 4 and wounded several people, prompting President Donald Trump to weigh joining the Saudi campaign against the Iran-backed Houthis, a regional official told AP News.

The attack killed 12 people, injured 309, and caused material damage that is still being assessed, the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a statement. The injured are receiving treatment at several hospitals, with some in critical condition. Those killed include four Saudi citizens and eight foreign residents: two Bangladeshi nationals and one person each from Egypt, the US, Jordan, Syria, Palestine, and Sudan.

The strike forced an evacuation and shut the airport. The General Authority for Civil Aviation suspended operations at the airport. An official notice to airmen put the suspension through midnight. The Houthis had not yet claimed the strike as of filing.

Trump said Washington could step in. “We may. We’re going to look at it,” he told reporters, adding that the US had “just found out about the recent attack. So we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.”

Saturday caps a brutal week. Houthi missile and drone attacks killed six people across three days. Abha International and King Khalid were hit on 6 and 7 October, killing two residents at Abha (28 injured) and one at King Khalid (eight injured); two further strikes on King Khalid on 8 October, aimed at airport facilities and a Saudia aircraft, killed three Saudi citizens, among them Saudia Captain Hamoud Al-Kalthami. Each time, operations resumed within hours. The recovery time for the latest strike remains to be seen.

The Saudi-backed coalition is pushing back: It said it destroyed 82 Houthi military targets across Saada, Hodeidah, Al-Jawf, and Marib — 11 missile depots, command-and-control centers, and militia headquarters among them — and later reported striking 136 more, while intercepting missiles aimed at Riyadh and Khamis Mushait, and taking out three launch pads. The Houthis put the coalition’s Thursday strikes at 77, bringing their running tally of coalition attacks past 1.9k.

Closer to the chokepoint, the coalition said yesterday their forces were advancing around the Bab Al Mandab Strait after launching an operation to retake lost territory, but had not secured the waterway. The Houthis earlier claimed they repelled a Saudi-backed advance from Lahij toward the strait, destroyed more than 22 armored vehicles, and inflicted dozens of casualties, and said they downed a Turkish-made Bayraktar Akinci drone over Taiz. Earlier Saturday, the group accused Saudi Arabia of striking Sanaa International Airport in the rebel-held Yemeni capital.

REMEMBER- The Houthis attacked Yemen’s Aden International Airport last week with two ballistic missiles and several drones, hitting the runway and passenger terminal. They also struck Saudi airports and sites including King Khalid, Jazan’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International, Najran International, and Abha, plus Aramco’s Rabigh refinery, the Khamis Mushait airbase, and Asir’s Aqeefah camp.

Carriers are fleeing Riyadh

The Houthis say they are after Saudi airspace, and they are not done. Their military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for the Thursday strikes on King Khalid and Najran airports and the Khamis Mushait airbase, and warned airlines the group will keep targeting Saudi airspace.

Flights took a heavy hit even before Saturday. Analytics firm Cirium counted around 300 cancellations at Riyadh on Thursday, with scores more at Jeddah and Dammam; Flightradar24 logged another 131 at Riyadh on Friday. Saudi carriers ran as scheduled, but Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, and flydubai cancelled flights, and Lufthansa, EgyptAir and its subsidiary Air Cairo, Philippine Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and three Indian carriers including Air India suspended Riyadh service. British Airways, Air France, and others have not flown to Saudi Arabia since February. Saturday’s suspension will deepen the disruption.

Regulators are warning airlines away: The EU’s EASA widened its Saudi airspace advisory to add an area in the northwest, flagging the risk of civil aircraft being misidentified when air defenses activate, alongside missile and drone overflights, interception activity, and falling debris. OPSGROUP, a network of nearly 10k aviation professionals, sent members a “do not fly” warning citing the missile attacks and the risk of “misjudgment” in defensive responses.

Bad timing

The escalation lands on top of Saudi Arabia’s marquee business calendar. The World Petroleum Council Energy Congress runs today through Thursday and the Future Investment Initiative (FII) follows on 26-29 October at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center. The airport serving both has been attacked three times in the span of a week.

Some are already pulling back: The UK has warned against all but essential travel to Riyadh and other parts of the Kingdom, and consultancies are curbing trips, the Financial Times reports. The halted flights have forced improvisation: one consultant drove almost 12 hours from Riyadh to Dubai on Thursday evening, another firm cancelled travel as of Friday, and a third cleared only its partners to go next week. Italy’s energy minister will now address the congress by video instead of in person.

Others are going anyway: Some senior Middle East bankers still plan to attend, with smaller delegations, and several foreign energy executives say they will be there, on the logic that “the Saudis remember who their friends were in bad times.” Phil Miles, associate managing director at risk advisory Kroll, told the FT that executives are loath to pull out of an event as big as FII, so companies are “deferring decision-making” until the last possible moment. Another senior banker expects fewer foreigners at FII saying it’s “great for us! Less competition for face time.”

FII is still a go, for now. Organizers said Friday the summit will proceed with “comprehensive security measures,” and officials are treating the energy congress as a bellwether for it, a person familiar with their thinking told the FT. The final call, this person said, rests on state security’s confidence that the airports, the venue, and the hotels are protected from cruise missiles. The latest King Khalid strike will factor into that assessment.

Meanwhile, our allies are hedging

Turkey is staying out of offensive operations. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a press conference Thursday that Ankara “will not send troops to another country and carry out an attack there,” drawing a line between defending an ally and going on the offensive, including against the Houthis.

Damascus is weighing defensive support or troops alongside Saudi-backed Yemeni forces, Reuters reports, citing a US official and a Syrian military official briefed on the matter; Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa had raised the topic with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during their meeting last week.

REMEMBER- Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan — members of the Strategic Political and Defense Committee set up under the Makkah Agreement for Joint Defense — just agreed last week to supply forces and capabilities for rapid deployment in the Kingdom. The committee has also named retired Pakistani Lieutenant General Nauman Mahmood as its first secretary-general, for a three-year term.