Houthis Claim Another Missile Strike on Riyadh Airport, but Flights Kept Running

Yemen’s Houthis said on November 4, 2026, that one of their ballistic missiles had hit King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and caused major damage. No Saudi authority had confirmed a strike or any damage by that evening, and flight tracking showed planes still taking off and landing after the claim.

The airport has run a reduced schedule since it partly reopened on October 25. It had been shut for about two weeks after deadly attacks in early October.

What the Houthis said

The claim came from Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree, in an Arabic post on X at 5 p.m. Riyadh time (9 a.m. ET). He said the missile scored a “direct hit,” but he did not say when it was fired.

Saree also repeated that the airport is unsafe. He renewed the group’s call for international airlines, their staff and travelers not to fly through Saudi airspace, with one exception: the airspace over Makkah and Madinah.

That warning is not new. The Houthis first warned airlines about Saudi airspace in early October, and Saree used the same carve-out for the two holy cities on October 12, Anadolu reported.

What Saudi Arabia has said

Saudi authorities had not commented on the claim when CBS News reported it on Wednesday morning, US time. By 8 p.m. in Riyadh, AeroCorner had found no statement on it from the Saudi-led coalition, the civil aviation authority or the airport.

The only official signal came about 14 hours before Saree’s post. At 2:49 a.m. on November 4, Saudi Civil Defense said the National Early Warning Platform had issued an alert of “a potential danger” in Riyadh Province. Nine minutes later, it posted that the danger had passed.

AFP, in a report carried by 24NewsHD, placed that brief alert alongside the Houthi claim. Neither Civil Defense post said what had set off the warning.

Civil Defense issued and lifted similar alerts in Najran and Jazan provinces later that day. Saree separately claimed strikes that morning on a radar and a border guard command building in Jazan and on a military camp in Najran, none of them confirmed by Saudi Arabia.

Flights kept running

FlightAware’s board for the airport on the evening of November 4 showed departures and arrivals continuing after Saree’s statement. A flyadeal flight left for Jeddah at 5:52 p.m., Saudia’s SV1043 followed it at 6:30 p.m., and a Badr Airlines flight left for Port Sudan at 7:29 p.m.

Saudia flights from Dubai and Dammam landed at 7:43 p.m. and 7:58 p.m., all times local. Saudia’s SV110 from London Heathrow was in the air and due shortly after 8 p.m.

Most of the traffic on the board belonged to Saudi airlines: Saudia, flynas and flyadeal. That matches the airport’s October 24 notice, which put domestic flights in Terminal 1 and national carriers’ international flights in Terminal 2 from October 25.

A few foreign airlines did appear. Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways landed from Kuwait City at 1:50 p.m., as it had on November 1 and 2.

Etihad stays away until November 19

Some foreign airlines are still keeping Riyadh off their schedules. Etihad Airways has pushed its Riyadh and Dammam cancellations out to November 19 while restarting Abu Dhabi to Jeddah flights on November 6, Dubai Eye 103.8 reported on November 4.

Its previous Riyadh date had been November 5, according to Deep Arrival. That is two more weeks without the Abu Dhabi link for travelers who were booked to fly this week.

An unconfirmed claim can still move schedules. Airlines base their Saudi plans on their own security assessments and from regulators’ notices, not only from damage reports, so each new claim against Riyadh feeds into the next decision.

For travelers, the airport’s own advice from its reopening notice still applies. Anyone with a confirmed booking should check the flight’s status with the airline before heading to King Khalid.