PIA Pauses Riyadh Flights as Houthi Strikes Ground 42 Pakistan-Saudi Services

Pakistan International Airlines paused its flights to Riyadh on October 9-10, cancelling services PK-753 and PK-754, as the fallout from Houthi strikes on Saudi airports reached Pakistani aviation directly for the first time since the attacks on King Khalid International Airport and Abha airport killed three people and wounded a Pakistani resident days earlier.

What PIA actually suspended

A PIA spokesperson confirmed the airline paused Riyadh operations, attributing the decision to "the situation in the Middle East" rather than any Pakistan-specific security concern. The suspension is narrower than PIA's earlier Gulf pullback at the start of the US-Iran war in late February, when the airline suspended flights to the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait entirely while keeping Saudi routes running on altered flight paths. This time, Riyadh specifically has been paused; PIA has not announced changes to its other Saudi destinations, and has not given a date for resuming the route.

The disruption goes well beyond one airline

Airport sources told Pakistani outlets that 42 flights were cancelled and 68 delayed by two to seven hours nationwide on October 9, on security grounds tied directly to the Houthi missile attacks rather than any single carrier's decision. Lahore absorbed the heaviest hit, with 13 cancellations and 12 further delays, ahead of Karachi and Islamabad. The pattern matches what happened at the Saudi end: Flightradar24 counted 104 flights cancelled and 154 delayed at Riyadh airport alone on the day of the attacks, as foreign carriers including Lufthansa Group, IndiGo, Air India and Akasa Air pulled Riyadh flights for days at a stretch — Lufthansa's group airlines through October 16.

Why Riyadh traffic matters more for Pakistan than the raw flight count suggests

Riyadh is not a leisure route for Pakistani carriers; it is one of the primary gateways for the roughly 2.5 million Pakistani workers resident in Saudi Arabia, whose remittances are a direct line item in Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves. Disruption to that corridor during a period of already-elevated regional risk compounds a year in which Gulf and Middle East volatility has repeatedly reached Pakistan through shipping costs, oil prices and now, directly, passenger travel. It also lands on an airline, and a national carrier at that, whose Gulf operations were already running on a reduced, war-adjusted footing before this week's attacks added a fresh disruption on top.

No clear timeline for normal service

Pakistani outlets reported the PIA suspension had not been independently confirmed by an official company statement with an end date at the time of initial reporting, and the airline's call centre has been the primary channel for passengers checking individual flight status. With Lufthansa's group carriers holding their own Riyadh suspension through October 16 and no sign the underlying Houthi campaign against Saudi targets has paused, Pakistani travellers and the diaspora workforce that depends on this specific route have no firm date to plan around.

Build Better Pakistan's Economy Desk tracks how regional conflict spillover affects Pakistani aviation, trade and remittance flows, and will update this piece when PIA announces a resumption date.