Surveillance camera footage shows people reacting amid smoke at the moment of the attack at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on October 10, 2026. This frame is from a handout video.
Saudi Media Ministry | Reuters
Deadly attacks over the past week on Saudi Arabia’s second-busiest airport highlight how conflicts in the Middle East are upending large-scale air travel.
The airline industry is increasingly finding itself in the midst of these large-scale conflicts, with threats and outright attacks forcing airlines to immediately cancel flights across the Middle East for days, weeks, and even months. Some airlines may redeploy planes to some destinations in the Middle East, such as Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Doha in Qatar, to other locations entirely.
“This is a new paradigm. Civil aviation is being targeted directly, which hasn’t been the case in the past few decades,” said Mark Gee, founder of Ops Group, an independent aviation safety organization whose members include pilots, dispatchers and airline employees.
The attack on a Saudi airport claimed by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthis was the country’s deadliest attack in more than a decade. Over the weekend, a projectile struck the terminal at King Khalid International Airport in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than 300, officials said. Other attacks have included drones.
“Historically, airport security has focused less on protecting airspace and more on preventing unauthorized access to aircraft and airports,” said Jeff Price, a professor at Metropolitan State University Denver’s School of Aerospace Sciences and an airport management consultant.
Threats to aviation are forcing authorities to rethink how to protect blind spots in these key public spaces.
“There are established ways to deal with conventional weapons such as missiles. It’s very expensive, but there are ways,” said Gulnaz Ukasova, director of intelligence and analytical security at United Arab Emirates-based risk management firm International SOS. “There is still no foolproof way to deal with the threat posed by drones. Obviously, technology is constantly evolving.”
King Khalid International Airport has been closed for much of this week, with some airlines suspending operations there citing safety concerns. CEOs of major oil companies also withdrew from energy conferences held in the country.
delta airlinesMeanwhile, less than two weeks remain until the launch of the Atlanta-Riyadh route, the first direct commercial flight between the two countries operated by a US airline, according to the airline.
But late Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration warned U.S. airlines about safety risks when flying in or over Saudi Arabia. On Monday morning, Delta Air Lines announced it was postponing service on the route until March.
The new Delta route comes as the Saudi leadership seeks to increase tourism to the country and is part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 plan to diversify the economy away from oil and attract international investment.
Air traffic in Saudi Arabia was rapidly increasing. Planned growth in airplane seats in the market is up more than 23% this year from 2023, but growth has slowed recently, according to aviation data firm Cirium.
Whether travelers return to the region will depend on their risk appetite. Ukasova said energy companies that can rely on in-person visits to large projects tend to have a higher tolerance for risk, but academics have lower standards for potential risks.
Long-haul routes, reduced flights
The conflict has cut off much of the Middle East’s airspace, primarily over Iran. The outbreak of the Iran war in February created a major aviation, travel, and security crisis.
For example, Australian airline Qantas changed its route from Perth, Australia, to London to avoid Iranian airspace. Since the flight will be longer, the airline added a stop in Singapore for refueling.
For four years now, Western commercial airliners and cargo planes have had to fly long distances to avoid Russian airspace. After the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, aircraft carriers began to be diverted away from Russia.
Long-haul routes to avoid potentially dangerous airspace are driving up fuel costs for airlines, which were made even more expensive this year due to the same conflict in the Middle East.
Since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, much of the traffic to Dubai and Doha has recovered from the first day of the war, but remains below 2025 levels, according to aviation data firm OAG. According to the OAG report, capacity by seat across the Middle East decreased by 2.2 million seats in October, a 5.7% decrease from last year.
Some airlines are choosing to stay away from the region entirely.
“We will not be operating flights to Dubai and Doha. We will have to wait until the situation calms down,” Finnair CEO Turkka Kousisto told reporters in New York last month.
