Skies over Riyadh largely empty

The skies over the Saudi capital Riyadh were virtually empty yesterday as authorities extended the suspension of operations at the city’s international airport after deadly weekend attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis.

Authorities of King Khalid International Airport, Saudi Arabia’s second-busiest airport after Jeddah, cancelled 82 percent of all scheduled flights, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium, which said the final number may be higher.

Cancellations across all Saudi airports reached 46.4 percent, Cirium said.

“The General Authority of Civil Aviation has announced the extension of the suspension of operations at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh in order to complete the necessary procedures to verify the safety of the facilities and their operational readiness,” the authority said in a statement, without specifying when operations would resume.

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister acknowledged that the kingdom’s infrastructure and resilience had been tested, as he vowed a firm response following a wave of deadly attacks by Houthis, reports AFP.

“For Saudi Arabia, these circumstances have tested our infrastructure, our institutions, our people, and our resilience. They have also tested decisions made long before present crises, because resilience is built before crises begin,” Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said.

“Energy security can’t be taken for granted,” he told a high-profile conference in Riyadh. “The events of recent weeks are serious, our response must be equally serious.”

Meanwhile, Iran said it was “deeply concerned” by escalating attacks between Houthis and Saudi Arabia, after 14 people died in two days of strikes on Riyadh’s airport.

“We are deeply concerned about the developments taking place in the Arabian Peninsula,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told a weekly press conference, adding that Tehran was ready “to help facilitate dialogue between the parties”.

A senior aviation source who oversees flights to the Gulf for an airline said operations would be halted for the remainder of the working week in Saudi Arabia, according to messages sent to the carrier yesterday from Saudi aviation authorities.

“They told us it would be until at least Thursday. There are no flights until the end of the week,” the source told AFP.

A senior official from the Riyadh Metro also told AFP that authorities had suspended transport services to three stations serving the airport.