Airlines Keep Suspending Saudi Arabia Flights as Houthi Attacks Continue; Delays Hit UAE Airports
Why It MattersSaudi route suspensions announced in rolling windows show carriers managing conflict risk through short, repeatedly extended cancellations, which leaves schedules, crew rotations and aircraft utilisation exposed to the pace of the attacks.
What happened
Several routes were disrupted on Monday, 9 November, with cancellations to destinations in Saudi Arabia and to Nairobi. Flydubai has cancelled several flights to Dammam until 10 November, and to Abha and Riyadh until 17 November, according to the airline's flight booking page. Etihad resumed daily flights to and from Jeddah on 6 November, while its flights to Riyadh and Dammam are cancelled until 19 November. Multiple routes remain operational on Etihad and Air Arabia despite the disruption.
The suspensions come as Houthi attacks continue in Saudi Arabia, with the group targeting an airport and, more recently, an Aramco-linked building in Riyadh.
On 9 November, Flynas flights XY 201, XY 209, XY 215 and XY 216 from Riyadh and XY 210 to Riyadh were cancelled, as were XY 206 and XY 205 to and from Gassim. Riyadh Air flights RX 241 and RX 243 from Riyadh were cancelled. Cebu Pacific 5J 019 to Manila and Kenya Airways KQ 311 and KQ 310 to and from Nairobi were also cancelled.
At Dubai International Airport, delays included Emirates EK 152 from Copenhagen (25 minutes), EK 435 from Brisbane (36 minutes), EK 764 from Johannesburg (59 minutes), EK 22 from Dallas (54 minutes), EK 958 from Beirut (45 minutes) and EK 216 from Los Angeles (53 minutes). Flydubai delays ranged from 32 minutes on FZ 980 from Yekaterinburg to 3 hours 5 minutes on FZ 1716 from Minsk, and included FZ 992 from Saint Petersburg (2 hours 7 minutes) and FZ 053 to Kuwait (1 hour 20 minutes). SpiceJet SG 5106 to New Delhi was delayed by 6 hours 35 minutes.
At Abu Dhabi, Etihad EY 610 and EY 596 from Tel Aviv were delayed by 40 and 35 minutes, and Air Arabia flights from Kochi, Calicut, Trivandrum and Chennai were delayed by 35 to 50 minutes. At Sharjah, Air Arabia G9 555 from Peshawar was delayed by 1 hour 10 minutes, G9 449 from Trivandrum by 1 hour 1 minute and G9 503 from Colombo by 49 minutes.
Industry impact & what to watch
The cancellations here are dated in short windows: Flydubai's run to 10 November for Dammam and to 17 November for Abha and Riyadh, Etihad's to 19 November for Riyadh and Dammam. Carriers that publish suspensions this way keep the option to extend or lift them as the security picture changes, but each extension pulls aircraft and crew out of planned rotations on the Gulf's densest short-haul network.
The pattern is also uneven. Etihad restored Jeddah on 6 November while holding Riyadh and Dammam, and Flynas and Riyadh Air cancelled specific flight numbers rather than whole routes. That points to risk being assessed airport by airport and rotation by rotation, not as a single Saudi-wide switch.
The next markers are the stated end dates themselves: 10 November for Flydubai's Dammam flights, 17 November for its Abha and Riyadh flights, and 19 November for Etihad's Riyadh and Dammam services. Whether each date passes with flights restored or with a further extension will show how the carriers read the attacks.
