Riyadh Airport Reopens to Saudi Airlines on October 25, but Most Foreign Airlines Stay Away Until November

King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh is bringing Saudi airlines’ flights back into two of its terminals from Sunday, October 25, 2026, about two weeks after the Houthi attacks that shut it. In a travel alert posted on X on Saturday, the airport said Terminal 1 will handle domestic flights and Terminal 2 international flights operated by national carriers.

The alert covers Saudi airlines only. Most foreign carriers have pushed their own returns to Riyadh into November, and Air India extended its suspension on the same day.

What the airport announced

The notice, dated Riyadh, October 24, is short. It assigns King Khalid International‘s Terminal 1 to domestic flights and Terminal 2 to national carriers’ international flights, “effective Sunday, October 25, 2026.”

It asks passengers with confirmed bookings to check with their airline before heading to the airport. It names no airline and gives no flight numbers or schedule.

Saudi Gazette described the notice as the airport preparing to resume domestic and international operations. The AFP report carried by The Times of Israel framed it as Saudi Arabia saying flights would resume after a two-week closure.

Sunday’s notice follows a week of half-measures. Semafor reported that the airport officially reopened on Sunday, October 18, but that most scheduled flights were canceled and every flight needed prior permission under a notice to airmen.

A trickle of traffic followed. The Associated Press reported on October 21 that Saudia and flynas were flying a limited number of flights, citing FlightAware,, two days after airlines were told they could operate with prior permission.

Which airlines are still not flying to Riyadh

Foreign airlines have not followed. Air India said in a post on X on Saturday that its and Air India Express flights to and from Riyadh and Dammam stay suspended until November 7, and Jeddah until October 31, according to PTI’s report in The Telegraph India.

The same report gives IndiGo’s and Akasa Air’s latest dates. Lufthansa Group’s own travel notice keeps Riyadh off its schedule up to and including November 18, and TravelMole lists the European and Gulf dates below.

Airline	Riyadh flights	Other Saudi cities
Air India, Air India Express	Suspended until November 7	Dammam until November 7, Jeddah until October 31
IndiGo	Canceled until October 31	Jeddah, Dammam, Madinah until October 31
Akasa Air	Suspended until November 30	Jeddah until November 10
KLM	Resumes November 1	Dammam resumes November 1
British Airways	Resumes November 3, one daily flight	n/a
Etihad	Abu Dhabi to Riyadh canceled through November 5	Dammam and some Jeddah flights through November 5
Air France	Not before November 7	n/a
Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Edelweiss	Suspended up to and including November 18	Dammam until November 30

Not every Saudi airline is back at its home airport either. Riyadh Air’s travel page still says that from October 25 its London, Cairo, Jeddah, Dhaka, Lahore and Islamabad flights operate via Al Qassim Airport, with a coach from the capital.

What reopening means here, and what it does not

An airport reopening is a decision by the airport and the aviation authority. Whether a given airline returns is a separate decision, made by each carrier and, for foreign airlines, often shaped by their own governments’ travel advice.

That gap is why the dates above run weeks past Sunday. Airlines also have to put aircraft and crews back on a route and resell seats, which takes time once a suspension has been published.

The wording of the alert also matters. By naming only national carriers, the airport has not said when foreign airlines’ international flights will be handled again, or from which terminal.

Travelers booked on any Riyadh flight in the coming days should follow the airport’s own advice and confirm the flight with the airline, rather than read Sunday’s restart as a full return to normal.

How the closure began

The shutdown followed the attack of October 10. Saudi authorities said at the time that at least 12 people were killed, and the aviation authority counted 309 wounded, Al Jazeera reported, a figure AeroCorner covered in its report on the attack.

Arab News, reporting the reopening, now gives 13 killed and more than 300 wounded. AeroCorner found no official statement explaining the change.

Further strikes followed, and the airport stayed shut to regular traffic for most of the next two weeks.