The Saudi authorities announced that the capital’s airport will remain closed until Saturday. The Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation stated in a statement that the suspension of operational operations at King Khalid International Airport, the second busiest airport in the Kingdom after Jeddah, comes “to complete the necessary procedures to verify the safety of the airport facilities and their operational readiness.”
The Houthis said yesterday evening, Monday, that they attacked the airport with a ballistic missile, shortly after Saudi Arabia announced that it intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile that the group launched towards Riyadh.
The group added in a statement that it "was able to target Khalid International Airport in Riyadh... with a ballistic missile, and the hit was accurate." It also said that it carried out "a targeting operation against Khamis Mushait Air Base with a drone, and the hit was direct."
There has been no Saudi confirmation yet regarding this attack.
A notice to pilots issued yesterday showed that the airport will remain closed until 21:00 GMT on October 17.
The airport has been closed since an attack that occurred last Saturday, which killed 13 people and injured more than 300 others. It was the bloodiest attack in the Kingdom in more than 10 years. Another attack on Sunday killed one person and injured more than ten others.
The attacks caused one of the largest disruptions to Saudi civil aviation in years, increasing pressure on a sector already suffering from the repercussions of conflict across the Middle East and high prices for jet fuel, which eat up profits. It also raised concerns about civil aviation becoming a target in armed conflicts.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Monday (October 12, 2026) that it was "very likely" that what was suspected of being a plot targeting Britain's Fairford Air Base was coordinated in Iran.
Burnam told Parliament, "I can confirm our assessment that it is very likely that this matter was coordinated in Iran, and it was almost certainly directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard."
American bombers used the Fairford base to carry out strikes on Iran, but US President Donald Trump said last week that a threat linked to Iran prompted the withdrawal of the planes.
The British Foreign Office announced the summoning of the Iranian ambassador to London to express its dissatisfaction with "Iran's continued attempts to undermine the security of the United Kingdom and international partners through its criminal networks, affiliated groups, and malicious state-backed activities."
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said: “We are also announcing the designation of two Iranian nationals for their role in facilitating or engaging in hostile activities on behalf of the Iranian regime, with the clear intent of threatening, planning or carrying out attacks abroad.”
American officials told Reuters that there is a suspected plot involving Iran to launch an attack on the base with drones.
Iran denies its involvement and expresses its willingness to cooperate
Iran rejected any suggestion of its involvement in the Fairford incident, saying that the matter was nothing more than “baseless and malicious speculation.”
Today, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that the Iranian ambassador to Britain, Seyyed Ali Mousavi, denied any role for Tehran in the incident, and said that Iran is ready to cooperate with the British authorities in investigating the case.
The agency reported that "Mousavi once again categorically rejected the accusations related to Tehran's role in the Fairford military base incident." He "called on the British government to provide evidence to support its accusations, if any."
The United States and allied countries warn Iran of “unacceptable” behavior
In a related context, the United States and its partners, including Britain, Australia, Canada, France and Germany, warned Iran on Monday against launching hostile actions on its soil.
A joint statement published by the US State Department and signed by 29 parties said: “Any attempt by Iran to threaten, silence, intimidate, harass, harm, or coerce people on our soil, whether through proxies or by any other means, is unacceptable.”
The airspace of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, was largely empty of planes today, Monday (October 12, 2026), following attacks launched by the Yemeni Houthi group allied with Iran on King Khalid International Airport. Data issued by Cirium, a company specializing in aviation analytics, showed that about 60 percent of scheduled flights are expected to be cancelled.
According to Cirium data, King Khalid Airport, which is the second busiest airport in the Kingdom after Jeddah, canceled 99.7 percent of the flights that were scheduled for yesterday, Sunday. It is expected that more than a third of scheduled flights will not be operated across the Kingdom today, Monday, while estimates by the flight tracking website (Flight Radar 24) indicated that cancellations at Riyadh Airport reached about 78 percent.
The airport in the Saudi capital remained closed yesterday, Sunday, following an attack that killed one person and injured more than ten people. Yesterday's attack came on the heels of another attack for which the Houthis claimed responsibility the previous day, which resulted in the killing of 13 people and the wounding of more than 300 others.
The attacks caused one of the largest disruptions to Saudi civil aviation in years, forcing airlines in Europe and Asia to suspend their flights. The Federal Aviation Administration asked American airlines yesterday, Sunday, to exercise caution when launching flights to Saudi Arabia or flights passing through its airspace.
The Lufthansa Group canceled all its flights to Riyadh until October 16, while Air France-KLM extended the suspension of flights to and from the Saudi capital until the end of the month.
Iran's willingness to mediate
Today, Iran, which supports the Houthis, expressed its "deep concern" about the escalation of attacks between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei told reporters, "We are deeply concerned about developments in the situation in the Arabian Peninsula," stressing Tehran's readiness to "facilitate dialogue between the two sides" of the conflict.
“We do not want at all the continuation of hostilities and war between two Islamic countries,” Baghaei said, calling on the two parties to address the situation “through dialogue and communication.”
In recent days, Riyadh has witnessed attacks of an intensity not seen since the beginning of the war in Yemen in 2014 between the Houthis and government forces militarily supported by a coalition led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since 2015.
