In the past week, the second busiest airport in Saudi Arabia has been subjected to a deadly attack, highlighting how conflicts in the Middle East are disrupting air travel on a larger scale.
As threats and direct attacks force airlines to rapidly cancel flights in the Middle East, the aviation industry is increasingly finding itself at the heart of these widespread conflicts, with impacts lasting for days, weeks, and in some cases, even months. Some airlines may re-route flights that were originally destined for destinations in the Middle East such as Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and Doha, Qatar, to other regions.
The founder of the independent aviation safety organization OpsGroup, Mark Zei ( Mark Zee ), stated: "This is a new paradigm. Civil aviation is being targeted directly, which has not been the case in the past few decades." Members of OpsGroup include pilots, dispatchers, airline employees, and others.
The attack on a Saudi airport was claimed by the Houthi militants supported by Yemen and Iran, and it is considered the deadliest attack in that country in over a decade. Officials stated that during the weekend, a projectile struck the Terminal 1 of King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, resulting in at least 13 deaths and more than 300 injuries. Other attacks also involved drones.
Jeff Price, a professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautical Science at Denver Metropolitan State University and an airport management consultant ( Jeff Price ), stated: "Historically, airport security has mainly focused on preventing unauthorized access to aircraft and airports, rather than defending airspace."
Threats to the aviation industry are forcing officials to rethink how to protect the blind spots in these large public spaces.
Gurnaz Ukasova, the Director of Information and Analysis Security at the risk management company International SOS headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, stated: "There are already established methods for dealing with more traditional weapons such as missiles. Although the cost is high, there are indeed solutions. As for the threat posed by drones, there is still no foolproof way to deal with it. Clearly, this technology is still evolving."
King Khalid International Airport has been closed for most of this week, with several airlines suspending operations at the airport on grounds of safety concerns. The CEOs of several major oil companies also withdrew from an energy conference being held in Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, it has been less than two weeks since Delta Air Lines announced its intention to launch a flight route from Atlanta to Riyadh. This will be the first direct commercial flight operated by a U.S. airline between these two countries, Delta Air Lines had previously stated.
However, in the late hours of Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States issued a warning regarding flight safety risks for American airlines flying to Saudi Arabia or over Saudi airspace. On Monday morning, Delta Air Lines announced that it would postpone the maiden flight of that route until March.
As this new Delta Air Lines route is launched, it coincides with Saudi leadership's efforts to boost tourism, which is part of the country's "Vision 2030" plan. The goal is to wean the economy off its dependence on oil and attract international investment.
Saudi Arabia's air travel traffic has been growing rapidly. According to the aviation data company Cirium, the planned seating capacity for this market is set to increase by more than 23% this year compared to 2023, although the growth rate has recently slowed down.
Whether travelers will return to that area depends on their willingness to take risks. Ukasova stated that energy companies often need to go to the sites of large-scale projects in person, therefore they have a higher tolerance for risk; whereas the academic community has a lower threshold for tolerating potential risks.
Longer routes, reduced flights
These conflicts have severed large swathes of airspace in the Middle East, mainly over Iran. The outbreak of war in Iran in February triggered a large-scale aviation, travel, and security crisis.
For example, Qantas Airways ( Qantas ), an Australian airline, has adjusted its flight route from Perth to London in order to avoid Iranian airspace. Due to the increased flight distance, the airline has subsequently added a stop in Singapore for refueling.
Over the past four years, Western commercial passenger and freight airlines have also been forced to take longer routes to avoid Russian airspace. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, airlines have begun to fly around Russia.
To avoid potentially dangerous airspace, airlines choose longer flight routes, which also increases their fuel costs. This year, due to the same conflicts in the Middle East, these costs have become even more substantial.
Although the flow of passengers to Dubai and Doha has rebounded from the lows at the beginning of the war since the attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran on February 28, according to statistics from the flight data company OAG, it is still below the levels of 2025. OAG reports that in October, the capacity in the Middle East calculated by seating capacity decreased by 5.7% year-on-year, with 2.2 million seats reduced.
Some airlines have chosen to stay completely away from that region.
Turka Kuissto, the CEO of Finnish Air Lines ( Turkka Kuusisto ), told reporters in New York last month: "We will not fly to Dubai and Doha; we need to wait until the situation stabilizes."
