Three dead in strikes on Riyadh and Abha airports as Indian and German flights stop

Saudi civil aviation authorities said attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and on Abha airport in the southwest killed three people and wounded 36. One person was killed and eight wounded in Riyadh. Two were killed and 28 wounded in Abha. The authority said one strike was on Tuesday and one on Wednesday, without saying which airport was hit on which day. Yemen's Houthis claimed the Riyadh strike. Spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had fired at King Khalid International with drones and, in a separate statement, a ballistic missile. The Houthis also claimed a strike on King Khalid Air Base at Khamis Mushait. The Saudi-led coalition later said it had destroyed the launcher used against Riyadh airport.

A more detailed account carried by the Saudi Gazette from the General Authority of Civil Aviation and the Saudi Press Agency named the dead. At Abha, two women residents, one Moroccan and one Algerian, were killed. The injured included Saudi citizens and residents from Bangladesh and the Philippines. At King Khalid International, a Sudanese resident was killed. Eight people were hurt: five Saudi citizens, two Egyptian residents and a Pakistani resident. Injuries ran from minor to serious. Everyone hurt was taken to hospital. Dawn, citing the same authority, described the Abha dead as Egyptian and Algerian. The split in the published nationality is a reason to treat the names of countries as reported, and the toll of three and 36 as the figure the authority itself has stood on.

The airport as a target, and the timetable that broke

By Thursday morning, Flightradar24 figures reported by The National showed 58 departures from Riyadh delayed, about 15 percent of the day's schedule, and 11 cancelled. The average delay was 45 minutes. Saudia flight SV562 to Dubai and Turkish Airlines TK145 to Istanbul were among the cancellations. Later on Thursday a larger set of international arrivals was cancelled as airlines pulled their own services.

Lufthansa Group suspended flights to Riyadh through 16 October. A spokesperson told Reuters the reason was "current developments in the Middle East." IndiGo cancelled all Riyadh flights until 9 October. Air India and Akasa Air cancelled theirs until 10 October. Air India Express did the same through 10 October and said affected passengers could rebook at no charge or take a refund. An Air India flight from Delhi to Riyadh turned back to Delhi on Thursday. Akasa cancelled QP 523 from Kochi to Riyadh and QP 524 on the return.

The Indian schedule is concrete enough to count. Air India Express runs 16 flights a week to Riyadh, from Bengaluru, Kochi, Kannur and Kozhikode. Air India runs seven a week, from Delhi and Mumbai. Those cities are the ones where families with relatives in the Saudi capital will feel the suspension first. India's external affairs ministry condemned the attacks on Abha and King Khalid International. Indian officials also advised nationals in Saudi Arabia to stay alert.

Where this sits in the Yemen fight

The airport strikes came as fighting inside Yemen intensified. The Houthis attacked Aden's airport the same week with ballistic missiles and drones, the Yemeni transport ministry said. Saudi-backed government forces have been trying to retake ground along the Red Sea coast that the Houthis seized last month. The International Organization for Migration has put the number of people displaced by the recent fighting above 200,000. Control of the Bab el-Mandeb approaches is the stake. A group that can hit Riyadh's main civilian airport can also threaten the shipping lane that carries a large share of seaborne oil and goods between Asia and Europe.

Saree called the latest Riyadh claim a final warning to airlines using Saudi airspace. Saudi authorities did not immediately confirm that later claim. The confirmed damage is already enough to move European and Indian carriers off the route. A warning works if airlines believe a second strike is plausible. Thursday's cancellations are the evidence that they do.

What to watch in the next two days

IndiGo's suspension runs only to 9 October. Air India's and Akasa's run to 10 October. Lufthansa's runs to 16 October. If King Khalid handles a normal departure bank on Friday and Saturday, the short Indian suspensions can end on the dates the airlines published. If a further Houthi launch is confirmed, those dates will move, and the longer German suspension will look like the more accurate reading of the risk. The casualty count is unlikely to be the part that changes. The part that changes is whether Riyadh's main airport is a place foreign crews will still fly into next week.