Air Oct 20, 2026 · 8 min read

Riyadh stays shut as Houthi missiles keep Saudi air cargo grounded

Riyadh’s airport is still shut, and Saudi air freight now moves by road. Riyadh airport cargo capacity fell 99%, from 3,925 tonnes to 26, according to Rotate data cited by The Loadstar on 13 October. It was still closed on 20 October, when another Houthi missile at Riyadh was intercepted. Our view: this is no longer a short pause. Etihad has cancelled Abu Dhabi flights to Dammam, Riyadh and Jeddah through 24 October, per Gulf News. Forwarders should plan Saudi air shipments through other gateways with a truck leg. We expect Riyadh to stay closed to normal cargo flights until at least early November.

Riyadh’s airport is shut for a second week, and Saudi air freight now needs a road plan Riyadh’s main airport has lost almost all of its cargo capacity. Rotate data cited by The Loadstar shows capacity at Riyadh across all airlines, leaving out narrowbody passenger jets, fell 99%, from 3,925 tonnes to 26. A widebody is a large twin-aisle passenger jet that carries freight in its hold. Across Saudi Arabia, freighter and widebody capacity fell 33%, to 7,292 tonnes, over a 72-hour window compared with the week before.
That was on 13 October. A week later, nothing has eased. On 20 October Gulf News reported that Riyadh’s airport, King Khalid International, “remains closed following deadly attacks”. The same day, the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted and destroyed a Houthi ballistic missile fired at Riyadh, according to the Saudi Press Agency, as relayed by Gulf News. Residents got an emergency alert from Saudi Civil Defence, and about eight minutes later officials said the danger had passed.
Our view is simple. This is not a short closure that forwarders can wait out. Saudi air freight now needs a road plan, a different gateway and a buffer in transit times. The bigger risk, which few people are pricing yet, is at sea. Carriers have only just come back to the Red Sea, with direct calls at Jeddah.

How the air picture fell apart

The Houthis are the Iran-backed group that controls much of northern Yemen. They resumed direct attacks on Saudi Arabia in July, gCaptain reported, ending about four years of relative calm. In October they hit Riyadh’s airport directly. ProPakistani reported that a Saturday attack, on 10 October, killed 13 people and wounded more than 300. It called it the deadliest attack in the kingdom in over a decade. Another attack the next day killed one person.
Saudi aviation authorities then shut the airport. A NOTAM, a formal notice to pilots, first set the closure to end at 2100 GMT on 17 October. On 12 October Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation extended the suspension while it checked the airport’s safety and readiness. The Loadstar reported that the authority gave no reopening date.
Airlines pulled back fast. Cirium, the aviation data firm, put cancellations across all Saudi airports at 46.4%, ProPakistani reported. Lufthansa Group cancelled Riyadh flights until 16 October. Air France-KLM suspended Riyadh services to the end of the month. Delta pushed back its new Atlanta–Riyadh route from 23 October to March 2027.
“This level of sustained intense attack on civil aviation is unprecedented,” said Mark Zee, founder of the aviation safety group OPSGROUP, quoted by ProPakistani.

The Gulf hubs are pulling back too

The damage does not stop at Riyadh. Much Saudi air freight moves on passenger jets through Gulf hubs such as Abu Dhabi and Dubai. That space in the hold is called belly capacity. Those hubs are now cutting Saudi flights.
According to Gulf News on 20 October, “Etihad has cancelled flights between Abu Dhabi and Dammam, Riyadh and Jeddah through October 24.” Dubai International reported cancellations to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. A week earlier, Khaleej Times reported that flydubai had cancelled flights to Abha, Dammam and Riyadh up to and including 19 October.
That matters because Dammam and Jeddah are the obvious backup gateways for Riyadh freight. If the Gulf hubs cut those routes as well, the backup shrinks just as demand for it rises.
Saudia Cargo, the national carrier’s freight arm, is also under strain. It suspended Riyadh services, according to an Expeditors advisory of 9 October cited by The Loadstar. Its international freighter and belly capacity fell 19% over three days, to 7,410 tonnes. For scale, Saudia Cargo carried 573,000 tonnes in all of 2025, The Loadstar reported. Saudi airports handled 866,000 tonnes of air cargo from January to September 2025, according to aviation authority figures reported by Air Cargo Week. That is a big market to squeeze through fewer doors.
Airspace is a further problem. A European aviation safety bulletin, revised on 9 October, tells airlines to avoid two parts of Saudi airspace at all altitudes, The Loadstar reported. Longer routes burn more fuel. On flights that are already near their weight limits, that can mean less room for cargo.

Road is now the fallback

Forwarders are already looking at trucks. The Expeditors advisory lists road transport among the alternatives, though it did not say how much freight has moved, The Loadstar reported.
Oman Air Cargo has some freight stuck. “We have a small amount of cargo waiting in MCT as a result,” Mike Duggan, head of Oman Air Cargo, told The Loadstar, using the code for Muscat airport. His carrier is planning a road feeder service into Saudi Arabia. That is a scheduled truck run sold under an air waybill, so the shipment is still booked as air freight. “It has not impacted our RFS services so far,” he said. But he added: “perhaps it may give us some impetus to start sooner if the situation remains.”
The security picture is also getting heavier. The UK is sending RAF Typhoon jets. Its defence ministry said: “The UK will fly defensive counter air missions to support the protection of Saudi cities.” The US Embassy in Saudi Arabia has warned of possible further airport attacks and flight disruption, Gulf News reported. Houthi missiles also killed at least 53 soldiers and wounded more than 200 recruits at a Yemeni military camp, according to the same report. Neither side looks ready to stop.

The sea risk: Jeddah and the Red Sea return

This is where we think forwarders should pay closest attention. After nearly three years of sending ships around southern Africa, the big carriers have only just started coming back through the Red Sea and Suez.
In August, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd added a Jeddah call to their AE15 Asia–Mediterranean service, gCaptain reported. Maersk’s MECL service, linking India, the Middle East and the US East Coast, also returned with an eastbound Jeddah call. In September the two carriers, partners in the Gemini Cooperation alliance, moved four more services back to Suez: AE5, AE11, AE12 and ME2. AE5 links Asia and Northern Europe.
Maersk said at the time: “The route through the Suez and the Red Sea is the fastest, most sustainable and most efficient way to serve customers.” It also said: “The safety of the crew, the vessels, and customers’ cargo remains the highest priority.” gCaptain reported that the return depends on the Red Sea staying stable. In August gCaptain also reported that Maersk has plans to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope if threats grow.
They are growing. On 20 July the Houthis declared a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia and claimed attacks on Saudi tankers, gCaptain reported. Reuters, republished by gCaptain on 2 October, reported that the Houthis took control of the Bab el-Mandeb strait last month. That is the narrow southern entrance to the Red Sea. The same report said Saudi Arabia is planning an offensive to push them back, with Saudi air strikes backing Yemeni ground forces. Sources gave timings from within a week to after the US midterm elections in early November.
Michael Ratney, a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told Reuters: “Ideally, it would be a fairly limited operation to retake coastal areas and get back to normal maritime traffic.” Yemen analyst Mohammed Albasha was less sure: “Many anti-Houthi forces are still not organized or prepared for the kind of sustained offensive”. A ground war on the Red Sea coast would put every Jeddah call back under review.

What forwarders should do now

First, treat Riyadh air freight as a two-leg move. Book into another Saudi or Gulf gateway, then truck to Riyadh. Quote customers for the extra leg, the extra handling and the extra days. Do not promise a Riyadh landing slot.
Second, check every Gulf-hub routing. Etihad’s Saudi cancellations run through 24 October and cover Dammam and Jeddah as well as Riyadh. Space that looked available last week may not be there.
Third, move anything that is not urgent to ocean, via the Gulf coast at Dammam rather than the Red Sea. That avoids both the closed airport and the Red Sea risk.
Fourth, for Red Sea ocean bookings, read carrier advisories closely and ask about war-risk surcharges before you confirm. War-risk is an extra fee that carriers and insurers charge for sailing through conflict zones. If the Saudi offensive starts, Jeddah calls can change at short notice. Cargo already on the water could be rerouted or discharged somewhere else.
Fifth, build buffers into fourth-quarter plans. This is peak season for retail and project cargo into the kingdom. Fewer flights, longer air routes and extra truck legs all add days.

Our call

We expect King Khalid International to stay closed to scheduled widebody cargo flights until at least early November. Even after it reopens, we think capacity will take weeks to recover, because foreign airlines like Air France-KLM have already cancelled to the end of October. Over the next four weeks we expect Saudi-bound air rates via Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Dammam to rise, as freight squeezes through fewer gateways.
At sea, our call is this. If Saudi Arabia launches the ground offensive Reuters described, at least one major carrier will pause or drop a Jeddah call within six weeks. Forwarders with Red Sea cargo booked for November should have a Cape of Good Hope fallback priced now.

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