Houthi attacks on Saudi airports squeeze transcontinental flights into narrow corridor
Repeated missile strikes on Riyadh International Airport have added to pressure on a narrow band of airspace that hundreds of daily transcontinental flights depend on, with airlines and travellers warned to avoid Saudi airspace.
Repeated Houthi missile strikes on Riyadh International Airport are deepening a vulnerability for global aviation. Instability across Europe and the Middle East has pushed hundreds of daily transcontinental flights into a single narrow band of airspace 85 nautical miles wide.
Warnings telling airlines and travellers to avoid Saudi Arabian airspace followed an increase in attacks by Houthi militias on the kingdom's airports. A barrage on Oct. 11 killed at least one person, according to the account.
The corridor sits between two conflicts, and the volume of traffic routed through it leaves little room to absorb further closures. No details were given on how long the warnings would remain in force or how carriers would reroute around the affected airspace.
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- theaircurrent.comThe world’s most important airspace is a sliver of sky between two wars