Pakistani airlines suspend Saudi flights as Houthi strikes continue

Airlines from Pakistan are among carriers that have cancelled flights to Saudi Arabia amid continuing Houthi attacks, according to a report by the Dubai-based Khaleej Times, which said the UAE and Bangladesh had also seen services to the kingdom suspended.

The Khaleej Times report did not name the individual airlines, say how many flights were affected or specify which Saudi airports were involved. No confirmation from Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority, the Foreign Office or any Pakistani carrier appeared in the reports reviewed by Skardu Times, which could not independently verify the cancellations.

Pakistan Today reported separately that the Houthis had launched what it described as widespread strikes on Saudi Arabia. The lead report carried by Pakistan Observer was framed around a single question, whether Saudi airports were open on Monday, and carried no further detail that could be verified.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani officials were set to hold talks on Iran amid the Houthi attacks. That report did not identify the Pakistani officials involved, their rank, or where and when the talks would take place.

None of the four reports carried casualty figures, details of damage, or confirmation that the attacks had halted air traffic across the kingdom rather than at particular airports. Where the accounts overlap, they agree only that Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia are continuing and that air travel from South Asia to the kingdom has been disrupted.

The disruption matters directly in Pakistan, where Saudi Arabia is the destination for a large volume of labour migration, family travel and Umrah and Hajj traffic, and where any suspension of Gulf routes quickly affects travellers booked through Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Saudi Arabia is also central to Pakistan's external balancing, having extended repeated deposit and oil-finance support to Islamabad, and the reported talks involving Turkish and Pakistani officials alongside the Saudis would place Pakistan inside a diplomatic track on Iran at a moment of active cross-border strikes.

Nothing in the reports indicated whether Pakistani carriers had acted on their own or on instructions from regulators, nor whether the suspension was open-ended. Skardu Times will update this story as official confirmation becomes available.