Indian Airlines Halt Jeddah and Madinah Flights Until Saturday

Four Indian airlines have halted Saudi flights through October 17, after missile strikes closed Riyadh’s airport.

IndiGo’s cut includes Jeddah and Madinah, even though those airports are still handling traffic and Saudi carriers are still flying them.

A Hyderabad Family Was Waiting for Madinah

Mohammed Yousef Ali, a 46-year-old IT worker from Mehdipatnam in Hyderabad, was at King Khalid International Airport on October 10 with his wife and three children. They were near a check-in kiosk, bound for Madinah on an Umrah trip, when a missile hit the terminal at about 3pm local time.

Ali was badly hurt and later died. The Embassy of India in Riyadh said he had been one of 11 Indians wounded in Saturday’s strike. His wife, two sons and daughter were injured and treated in Riyadh. Among the other wounded was Sheikh Saeed, a Kamareddy man from Telangana who had worked at the airport for five years; relatives found him in intensive care after searching hospitals across the city.

The Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation said Saturday’s strike killed 12 people and wounded 309. An Indian man among the injured later died, taking that toll to 13. GACA named four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, and one person each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt among the dead. Some of the wounded were in critical condition.

The funeral rites of late Mohammed Yousef Ali, who unfortunately lost his life in the Riyadh airport attack, were completed on October 12, 2026 in Riyadh, as per the wishes of his family.

Embassy of India, Riyadh, on X

India’s ambassador and mission staff joined the family. In its October 13 update, the embassy said four Indians remained in intensive care, four were in a normal ward, and three had been discharged. Officials were still visiting the hospitals and speaking with relatives.

The people on that concourse were not a side note to an airline notice. They were the India-Saudi air bridge in a single lounge: a Hyderabad family going on Umrah, and an Indian airport worker on his shift.

Which Indian Flights to Saudi Arabia Are Cancelled?

IndiGo has stopped flights to and from Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Madinah through October 17. Air India and Air India Express have stopped Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah for the same window. Akasa Air has stopped Riyadh and Jeddah. King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh is closed until 2100 GMT on October 17 under a notice to airmen.

The notices went out on October 13, three days after Saturday’s strike. Last week the same carriers had already cut Riyadh after earlier hits on the field. The new round widened the map. IndiGo is the only Indian carrier in the group that also pulled Madinah. Air India Express’s Riyadh network runs from Bengaluru, Kochi, Kannur and Kozhikode, 16 flights a week. Air India flies Riyadh seven times a week from Delhi and Mumbai.

INDIAN AIRLINE HALTS THROUGH OCTOBER 17

IndiGo told customers to check their flight status before leaving for the airport, and said updates were going to the contacts on the booking. The carrier posted the notice on X on October 13.

Travel Advisory

Due to the evolving situation in Saudi Arabia, flights to and from Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Madinah stand cancelled until 17 October'26.

Customers are advised to check their flight status at https://t.co/MDv6zfMXWi before leaving for the airport.

Timely…

— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) October 13, 2026

Air India said it was watching the region in order to resume safe flying, and that affected guests would get a full refund. Air India Express offered a free change of date or a full refund on Dammam, Jeddah and Riyadh. Akasa Air said it had extended a halt that had been due to end on October 13, after “a careful assessment of the evolving situation, with safety remaining the primary consideration.”

The Houthi Warning Left the Holy Cities Out

Yemen’s Houthis claimed the Riyadh strikes and told airlines, crews and travellers to stay out of Saudi airports and airspace. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree posted the warning on X on October 11, the day after Saturday’s attack. He put one carve-out in the same message.

The airports and airspace are exposed to targeting and constitute a theatre of operations for our forces, with the exception of the airports of Makkah and Madina.

Yahya Saree, Houthi military spokesman, on X

Saree told people to take the warning seriously and said Saudi Arabia would bear responsibility for failed interceptions. The head of the Houthi media office had already written that the group had “shut down Riyadh international airport.” The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen called Saturday’s strike a “full-fledged war crime.” Coalition spokesperson Major-General Turki al-Malki also said a projectile had fallen near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam.

Jeddah is the usual air gate for Mecca. Madinah is the other holy-city airport on Indian timetables. IndiGo still cancelled both. Air India, Air India Express and Akasa still cancelled Jeddah. The carve-out did not keep Indian metal on those routes.

Jeddah and Madinah Airports Are Still Handling Traffic

Riyadh’s field is shut. The rest of the map is not. The embassy in Riyadh, citing GACA, said operations at Dammam, Jeddah and Medina were continuing, with disruption. That is the split the Indian notices flatten when they treat the kingdom as one risk.

HOW THE AIRPORT SHUTDOWN BUILT

1. October 8, 2026: Strikes on King Khalid International Airport kill three Saudi citizens, including a pilot, GACA says. Earlier in the week, GACA had said attacks on Abha and King Khalid had killed three civilians and injured 36.
2. October 10, 2026: A missile hits the Riyadh terminal. GACA reports 12 dead and 309 wounded. An injured Indian later dies, taking the toll to 13. The airport suspends operations.
3. October 11, 2026: A further strike kills a Pakistani resident and injures 11 people, Saudi authorities say. Dammam’s airport is targeted. Saree renews the warning to airlines, with the Makkah and Madina exception.
4. October 12, 2026: Ali’s funeral is held in Riyadh. A notice to airmen keeps King Khalid closed until 2100 GMT on October 17. Cirium records 99.7 percent of Riyadh’s Sunday flights cancelled.
5. October 13, 2026: IndiGo, Air India, Air India Express and Akasa Air halt their listed Saudi cities through October 17. The embassy issues a fresh security note to Indians in the kingdom.

Cirium found about 60 percent of Monday’s planned Riyadh departures marked cancelled. In Jeddah, 156 flights were cancelled, 20 percent of the day’s plan, and 374 flights, 49 percent, were delayed. The US Federal Aviation Administration told American airlines to use caution in or over Saudi Arabia. Riyadh is the kingdom’s second-busiest airport after Jeddah, so a closed capital field jams the network even when the west-coast hubs stay open.

2.75 Million Indians Rely on This Air Bridge

The people who use these seats are not mainly holiday traffic. They are workers, families and pilgrims whose travel sits on a handful of city pairs.

THE INDIA-SAUDI AIR BRIDGE

• Residents: Parliament’s record shows 2,747,551 Indian nationals in the kingdom as of February 24, 2025, including 2,565,464 workers and 182,087 family members.
• Umrah season: Saudi’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah said more than 1.2 million Umrah pilgrims had entered from 109 countries since the season began, up 30 percent on the same stretch last year, with visas up 27 percent.
• Labor routes: Air India Express’s Riyadh flights leave from Bengaluru, Kochi, Kannur and Kozhikode, the south-Indian belt that feeds Gulf jobs.
• Mission advice: The embassy told Indians to stay calm and indoors in an aerial attack, follow local official channels, and not circulate videos of the strikes.

The Consulate General of India in Jeddah built its note around pilgrims moving through Jeddah and Madinah, and opened a 24-hour desk for Umrah pilgrims. The Riyadh embassy opened its own 24-hour control room, with a toll-free line inside the kingdom at 8002471234. Consular counters and VFS passport and attestation desks in Riyadh and Jeddah were still running, the embassy said.

WHO THE HALT HITS FIRST

• Umrah groups: Families already in the kingdom, or holding tickets into Jeddah and Madinah, now face a closed Indian-metal option through October 17.
• Gulf workers: Home leave and emergency travel on Riyadh and Dammam, including the Kerala and Karnataka city pairs, is frozen on Indian airlines.
• Airport staff: Indians employed at Riyadh’s field, including Saeed, were in the terminal when it was hit.
• Visit-visa holders: People who cannot leave on time because flights vanished have been told they may exit without overstay fines once seats return.

The embassy asked Indians in a true emergency to look at flights from Qatar and Bahrain, subject to those countries’ visa rules. That is a land-and-hub workaround, not a substitute for the direct India-Saudi seats that just disappeared.

Saudia and Flynas Kept Flying the Same Cities

While Indian carriers stepped back from Jeddah and Madinah, Saudi metal did not. The embassy said scheduled Saudia flights were still operating from Dammam, Jeddah and Medina. Flynas was still flying the Dammam-Lucknow sector, a Uttar Pradesh labor route that Indian LCCs also prize.

That split is the cost of a blanket Indian halt. A passenger holding an IndiGo ticket into Jeddah has no Indian-metal backup through Saturday, even if the airport is open and a Saudia aircraft is pushing back. Lucknow still has a Flynas frequency from Dammam. Kochi, Kannur and Kozhikode do not get that substitute on Air India Express’s frozen Riyadh lines.

Lufthansa Group cancelled Riyadh through October 16. Air France-KLM extended its Riyadh halt through the end of October. Those are capital-city cuts tied to a closed field. The Indian notices go further geographically, and for a shorter calendar, which leaves the holy-city and Eastern Province seats as the odd gap.

Later Seats Are Not on the Booking Path

Safety is the stated reason, and Saturday’s death toll is the evidence. The passenger bind is narrower. Air India, Air India Express and Akasa put refunds on paper. IndiGo’s notice did not. On the airline’s own thread, booked travellers said no update had reached the contacts on the reservation, and that they could not pick another IndiGo flight after October 17 even if they were willing to wait out the halt.

A city-wide cancellation is cleaner than a PNR. People with Riyadh-Mumbai tickets are still writing in seat numbers and asking whether that specific flight is dead. Until the reservation system matches the press note, the only sure exit on IndiGo is a fight with the desk. On Air India Express, the cleaner door is the free change or the refund the airline already offered.

THE RELIEF THE MISSIONS PUT ON PAPER

• Refunds: Air India, Air India Express and Akasa Air are offering full refunds; Air India Express also offers a free reschedule.
• Visa overstay: Saudi authorities said Indians on visit, tourist, Umrah or business visas who are stuck because flights vanished may exit without fines, and should leave as soon as flights return.
• Other hubs: The embassy pointed emergency cases toward Qatar and Bahrain, if those visas can be obtained.
• Helplines: Control rooms in Riyadh and Jeddah are running around the clock for Indians, with the Jeddah desk aimed at Umrah traffic.

King Khalid remains closed until 2100 GMT on October 17. Indian airlines have aligned their Saudi maps with that Saturday night. Jeddah and Madinah were never on that closure notice, and Saudia is still using them. The workers and pilgrims who bought Indian tickets are the ones sitting out the difference.