Riyadh Air Flies Three 787s Out of Closed Riyadh Airport Within 24 Minutes

Three Riyadh Air Boeing 787-9s took off from King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh within 24 minutes on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 13, 2026, flying as RX8004, RX8001 and RX8002. FlightAware’s tracking shows HZ-RXAG leaving at 3:16 p.m. local time, HZ-RXAC at 3:33 p.m. and HZ-RXAA at 3:40 p.m.

The airport has been shut to commercial traffic since an attack on its terminals on Saturday, October 10, that Saudi Arabia blamed on Yemen’s Houthis, Al Jazeera reported. The departures were first flagged by the X account Turbine Traveller, which said the jets were “ferried to safe airports.”

Where the jets went

FlightAware’s track for each flight starts just after takeoff from King Khalid and heads west, climbing to 40,000 feet. Coverage ends near Al Dawadmi, about 170 miles (275 km) out, so the tracking data does not show where they landed.

Turbine Traveller posted that HZ-RXAA landed at AlUla and HZ-RXAC at Medina. Simple Flying, which reported the three departures on Wednesday, also lists AlUla as the destination for HZ-RXAG.

Both cities are in the west of the country, roughly 440 miles (710 km) from Riyadh for Medina and 545 miles (875 km) for AlUla. AeroCorner found no statement from Riyadh Air on the moves at the time of writing.

A fourth Riyadh Air 787-9, HZ-RXAE, flew to Pakistan the same afternoon as RX9675. FlightAware picked it up over central Saudi Arabia at 4:09 p.m. Riyadh time and logged its landing at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International at 9:44 p.m. local time.

Simple Flying reported that this flight started in Jeddah. HZ-RXAE left Lahore again at 11:16 p.m. local time as RX9676, heading back toward Saudi Arabia.

Simple Flying also reported that four more of the airline’s eight 787s are on the ground in Jeddah. FlightAware confirms that one of them, HZ-RXAB, flew from Riyadh to Jeddah on October 10, the day of the deadliest attack.

Why an airline moves its jets away from its own hub

An airliner parked at an airport under attack is exposed. On October 8, a parked Saudia A320 was seriously damaged in an attack on the airport.

The attack on Saturday, October 10, killed 12 people and injured 309, the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said, as Gulf News reported. GACA reported a new attack on the airport on Sunday afternoon that caused injuries.

Riyadh Air depends heavily on King Khalid. In the FlightAware histories AeroCorner checked, each jet’s October flights before the closure start or end in Riyadh, on routes from Jeddah and Dubai to London, Manila and Kuala Lumpur.

Its fleet is also small. With eight 787s and no other type in service, according to Simple Flying, each jet is about an eighth of everything the airline can fly.

Spreading the jets across Jeddah, Medina and AlUla keeps them out of Riyadh while the airport stays shut. Jeddah, where half the fleet now sits, is already on Riyadh Air’s network.

What it means for passengers

NOTAM A3604/26 keeps King Khalid closed until 21:00 UTC on Saturday, October 17, which is midnight in Riyadh, Aerospace Global News reported. GACA has not announced a reopening date, so that is not a promise that flights resume then.

Simple Flying reported that Riyadh Air’s website lists cancellations through October 17 across all 15 of its destinations. It said passengers booked to travel up to October 24 can move to another Riyadh Air flight free of charge within 21 days of their original date.

AeroCorner could not load the airline’s website to confirm those terms, so passengers should check their booking directly with Riyadh Air.

The scale of the disruption shows in the data. Cirium figures published by Gulf News show 80 of Riyadh Air’s 113 departures from Saudi Arabia between October 8 and 13 were canceled or not flown, or 70.8%.

The cuts continued on Wednesday. Early on the afternoon of October 14, FlightAware listed 19 Riyadh Air cancellations at King Khalid for the day, out of 227 at the airport in total.

The closure has already run four days, as AeroCorner reported when Riyadh’s airport stayed shut after a second terminal strike. Until GACA reopens King Khalid International, Riyadh Air’s 787s cannot return to their home base.