Saudi Travel Advice Leaves Only Medina Airport Open

King Khalid International Airport will stay closed until 17 October after Houthi strikes killed 14 people there over the weekend. Britain now advises against using every Saudi airport except Medina, and tells nationals who want to leave to consider the road.

The capital’s main international airport has been hit repeatedly since 8 October. A Notice to Airmen holds it shut until 21:00 UTC on 17 October. The General Authority of Civil Aviation has not promised that passenger flights will restart that night.

King Khalid Stays Shut Through Saturday

Saudi civil aviation said a strike at about 15:00 local time on 10 October killed 13 people and wounded 309. The dead that day included four Saudis, two Bangladeshis, and one citizen each from the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Sudan, with an Indian national later counted among the 13. Terminal CCTV showed passengers waiting at gates when part of the ceiling came down.

A projectile hit the same terminal complex on 11 October, killing a Pakistani resident and wounding 11. GACA said operations were halted so inspectors could check damage and whether the buildings were fit to use. On 12 October the authority extended the suspension of operations while those checks continued with other agencies.

#Statement | Extending suspension of operations at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. pic.twitter.com/O6Ua5y9un5

— هيئة الطيران المدني (@ksagaca) October 12, 2026

Dammam’s King Fahd International Airport was struck the same evening, around 20:30 local time. A passenger on a taxiing jet told investigators a projectile hit the tarmac near parked aircraft and started a fire; the aircraft went back to the gate. Saudi air defences said they destroyed three ballistic missiles on 12 October, one over Riyadh and two over Khamis Mushait.

THE WEEK THE AIRPORT BECAME A TARGET

1. 13 July 2026: Direct fighting resumes after a four-year lull. Houthis fire on Abha after a strike on Sanaa’s runway, which had been meant to stop an Iranian passenger flight landing.
2. 6 to 7 October: Strikes on King Khalid and Abha kill three foreign citizens and wound 36, Saudi authorities said. Two of the dead at Abha were women from Algeria and Morocco.
3. 8 October: Further hits on King Khalid damage a parked Saudia Airbus A320.
4. 10 October: The 15:00 strike kills 13 and wounds 309. Flights are diverted and the airport is closed.
5. 11 October: A projectile hits terminals 3 and 4, killing one Pakistani resident. Dammam is hit the same night. Britain updates its advice.
6. 12 October: GACA extends the shutdown. The NOTAM keeps King Khalid closed until 21:00 UTC on 17 October.

The U.S. Mission in Riyadh, in an alert on 10 October, told American citizens to avoid this airport and surrounding areas. U.S. government staff in the kingdom already need special authorisation to use King Khalid.

Only Medina Is Still on the UK Airport List

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office updated its Saudi page on 11 October. The page was still current on 13 October. It now advises against all but essential travel to every airport in the country except Medina International Airport.

The same notice covers Riyadh province, Aseer, Najran, Jizan, and the cities of Taif, Jeddah and Dammam. All travel remains barred within 10 km of the Yemen border. Insurance bought in Britain can be voided if a traveller goes against that advice.

Medina is the pilgrimage airport. Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport is the usual gateway for Mecca, and it sits on the restricted list with Riyadh and Dammam. The UK line is stricter than a casual reading of “holy cities” would suggest, because the Hajj and Umrah traffic that uses Jeddah is treated as non-essential unless a traveller can show a pressing reason.

The FCDO’s own wording on King Khalid is blunt. British nationals should stay away “until the airport is secure and to monitor the advice of the Saudi authorities.” It also says further attacks against airports are very likely, and tells people to follow Saudi Civil Defence alerts. If a shelter warning is issued, the guidance is an interior stairwell or a room with few exterior walls, because the main danger after an intercept is falling debris.

Houthis Exempted the Two Holy Cities

Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, posted a renewed warning on 11 October. He told airlines, crews and passengers to keep out of Saudi airports and airspace, and he named the two exceptions that now sit beside the British list.

The airports and airspace are exposed to targeting and constitute a theatre of operations for our forces, with the exception of the airports of Makkah and Madina.

Yahya Saree, Houthi military spokesman, on X, 11 October 2026

He tied the campaign to a formula the group has used since the summer: airport for airport, blockade for blockade, escalation for escalation. That clock starts on 13 July, when the informal truce that had held since March 2022 collapsed after the Sanaa runway strike. The group has spent the months since treating Saudi civil aviation as a pressure point, the same campaign that has already triggered public air-raid alerts over Mecca.

The two lists rhyme and do not match. Saree left both holy-city airports off his target card. London left only Medina. Jeddah, which serves Mecca, is still in the British “all but essential” column, and it cancelled 98 of 370 scheduled departures on 11 October, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics firm. A Houthi statement is not a safety guarantee for anyone still flying into Medina. It is the reason the UK exception looks less like a tourist footnote and more like a map of who the war is still willing to spare.

On 13 October, Houthi military communications named King Khalid again, with Aramco’s Dammam headquarters and the Riyadh refinery, as sites they would hit if Saudi forces struck an oil depot in Sanaa. Those claims have not been matched, in public Saudi statements that day, by a new successful strike on the passenger terminals.

How Can Travellers Leave Saudi Arabia?

The FCDO’s working exit, for Britons who decide they should go, is the road. It names five countries as places to reach by land and then fly: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Qatar’s Abu Samra crossing with Saudi Arabia was described as open in the parallel British advice for Qatar. Jordan lists three 24-hour land crossings with the kingdom, including Umari, about 155 km from Amman.

That is not an evacuation airlift. The page says travel within or out of Saudi Arabia is at the traveller’s own risk, and it puts conditions on the car journey that will catch people who assumed they could rent a vehicle and go.

THE FCDO LAND EXIT RULES

• The five exits: Consider travelling by land to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE or Jordan, then flying from there, and read each country’s entry rules before you move.
• The car test: If you drive, the vehicle must be wholly owned and registered in your name, or you may be turned back at the border.
• The papers: Keep passports, visas and any onward tickets current; emergency travel documents can fail the six-month validity rule on the Saudi side.
• The kit: Carry emergency supplies and essential medicine, and check that the crossing you want is actually open that day.
• The air caveat: If you still try to fly, confirm the booking and the airport’s status before you leave for the terminal, and stay alert once you arrive.

Package holidays sold in Britain fall under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018. A “significant change” at the destination before departure can unlock a full refund. Anyone sitting on a simple airline ticket has less statutory cover, and a policy can be worthless if the holder travels against FCDO advice.

The United States has not copied the Medina carve-out. The embassy’s Level 3 reconsider travel warning stayed at that grade on 10 October, with the summary updated after the airport strikes. It cites drones and missiles from Iran and the Houthis, armed conflict, exit bans, and Saudi social-media laws. Staff are barred within 20 miles of the Yemen border and need extra approval for Jizan, Asir, Najran, Qatif, Taif, Yanbu and King Khalid itself. A later mission note told Americans to treat Jeddah and Dammam with the same caution, and said private cars, trains and buses may be the practical alternative to flying.

Sunday Erased 353 of 354 Riyadh Departures

Cirium’s Sunday file is the cleanest picture of what the shutdown did to the network. King Khalid is not a regional strip. When it stops, Saudia, flynas, flyadeal and the new carrier Riyadh Air lose the bank of flights that feed the rest of the country, and Gulf hubs lose the short hops they sell as same-day connections.

SUNDAY DEPARTURES THAT DID NOT FLY

Riyadh Air’s entire Sunday programme, 17 flights, was marked cancelled or not flown. Saudia dropped 225 services that day, flynas 146 and flyadeal 120. Across 8 to 11 October, Saudia had 646 of 1,546 scheduled departures wiped out, 41.8% of the fleet’s work. Emirates recorded no Saudi departures on Sunday against 11 scheduled. A later Cirium snapshot at 16:00 Riyadh time on 12 October put Monday’s national cancellations at 486 of 1,048 departures, 46.4%, with 271 of 1,058 already listed out for 13 October.

Foreign carriers moved their own calendars. Lufthansa Group stopped Riyadh flying through 16 October. Air France and KLM stretched their halt to the end of October. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has told American operators to treat Saudi airspace with caution through 10 December, citing military activity and possible interference with navigation. Europe’s aviation safety agency widened its own Saudi warning on 9 October. Delta still has a nonstop Atlanta to Riyadh service scheduled for 23 October; chief executive Ed Bastian said the airline would judge security before it flies.

Flightradar24’s tracks on 12 October showed jets still crossing the kingdom and still landing at Jeddah, even as they avoided the capital. The sky did not close. One airport did, and that was enough to take more than half of Sunday’s Saudi departures with it.

Oil Chiefs Dropped Off the Congress Agenda

The 25th World Petroleum Council Energy Congress opened in Riyadh on 11 October anyway, at a convention centre about 10 km (6.2 miles) from the closed airport. It is the first time Saudi Arabia has hosted the gathering, which runs through 15 October. The 17th Clean Energy Ministerial and 11th Mission Innovation meetings, billed as part of the same Riyadh energy week, moved largely online.

BP said its team could not get there. A spokesperson said the company had “made every effort to participate in WPC” and could not be present “due to travel disruption.” The chief executives of ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, Shell and Chevron, who had been expected, were gone from the agenda organisers issued on 13 October. Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the energy minister, opened the Monday session with a line that now sits next to a shuttered civilian airport.

You know this country is safe and that we hold your protection at whole heart. Our gathering here does not mean the risk is gone.

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi energy minister, opening the WPC Energy Congress

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, called the King Khalid strike abhorrent and said no military aim could justify hitting people in civilian infrastructure. That is the official reading of a passenger hall. The Houthi reading is the July ledger: Sanaa’s runway for Riyadh’s terminal. A packed departures level does not become a military airfield because of that ledger, and the intercept record of the past week shows the kingdom cannot count on stopping every round.

GACA has not named a morning when check-in will reopen. The NOTAM only keeps the capital’s airport closed until 21:00 UTC on 17 October, and it does not say the first flight after that will be safe to board.