Passengers board a flydubai aircraft on the airport tarmac as ground staff prepare the plane for departure
Passengers board a separate FlyDubai flight to Dubai at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on Sept. 30, the day Flight FZ1073 diverted to Saudi Arabia after an altercation on the flight deck. Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

DUBAI — Nearly half of all scheduled departures from Saudi Arabia have been cancelled or grounded since Oct. 8, after drone and missile attacks on the kingdom's airports left its busiest hub closed and forced Gulf carriers to suspend service across one of their most important markets.

Of 12,195 departures scheduled since that date, 5,547 — or 45.49% — had been cancelled or listed as not flying as of Tuesday, according to figures compiled by Gulf News. Regional media have attributed the attacks to Yemen's Houthi movement.

The timing is costly. The disruption is hitting a kingdom that has spent heavily to court foreign capital and visitors, and it comes as Riyadh prepares to host the Future Investment Initiative, its showcase gathering of global financiers and executives. Some investors are reconsidering their travel plans, according to reports this week. King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the worst affected, is reported to remain closed until at least Oct. 24.

The disruption peaked on Oct. 13, when 556 of 1,058 scheduled departures — 52.55% — were affected. Between Oct. 8 and Oct. 15, just over 4,000 of 8,883 scheduled flights did not operate, according to aviation-data firm Cirium. On Oct. 15, King Fahd International Airport in Dammam lost 60 of its 131 departures, and Jeddah 87 of 385.

Gulf carriers pull back

The UAE's airlines have retreated almost in unison.

Etihad Airways has cancelled flights between Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam through Oct. 24. FlyDubai cancelled several services to the kingdom on Tuesday, after earlier suspending routes to Riyadh, Dammam, Abha and Neom. Air Arabia has cut routes from Sharjah. All eight Emirates departures scheduled from Saudi airports on Oct. 15 were cancelled or did not fly, Cirium data showed.

One route has held. Flights between Dubai and Medina, the destination for many pilgrims, were listed as operating on Tuesday.

Carriers beyond the Gulf have followed. Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, Air India and Qatar Airways had announced cancellations by Oct. 12, according to Reuters, and Malaysia Airlines has suspended flights from Kuala Lumpur to Jeddah and Medina.

Travelers have been rerouting through Qassim, Bahrain and Qatar. In Riyadh, government offices and the local office of the International Monetary Fund have reportedly moved staff to remote work.

Much remains unclear. Reports conflict over whether King Khalid has partially reopened under restrictions. No authority has published an assessment of damage, and no casualties have been reported. Neither a formal claim of responsibility nor an official Saudi attribution for the attacks could be established. Organizers of the investment conference have not announced any change to its schedule.

What to watch

Riyadh on Oct. 24. Carriers are planning around that date. An extension would push disruption into a third week and into the conference period.

The conference. A postponement, or a visibly thinner attendance list, would be the clearest measure of what the attacks have cost beyond air travel.

The first carrier back. UAE airlines have moved largely in step. Whichever restores Riyadh service first will signal how the industry reads the security situation.