SriLankan Airlines is keeping its flights to Riyadh suspended as a safety measure in response to continuing attacks on Saudi Arabia, the airline said, according to Hiru News.
Two flights on the Colombo–Riyadh rotation have been cancelled as a result:
- UL265, scheduled to depart Colombo for Riyadh on Friday
- UL266, scheduled to arrive in Colombo from Riyadh on Saturday
No decision has yet been taken on whether an alternative destination will be used, an airline spokesperson said.
The attacks behind the suspension
Two people — a Moroccan national and an Algerian national — were killed and 28 others injured in attacks on Abha International Airport in Saudi Arabia.
A Sudanese national was killed and eight people injured in an attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Hiru reported, attributing the casualty details to foreign media.
That casualty reporting is second-hand in the only filing available to this desk, and the figures should be read with that in mind. The combined toll as reported is three dead and 36 injured across the two airports.
Context
The suspension follows a pattern of disruption on the route. Riyadh’s airport has been a target before in the current conflict: in September, a missile aimed at the airport was intercepted.
The route matters disproportionately to Sri Lanka because of the size of the Sri Lankan workforce in Saudi Arabia, for whom the Colombo–Riyadh service is a primary link home.
A separate round of Middle East cancellations earlier in 2026, when regional airspace closures forced SriLankan to halt a dozen flights across Dubai, Doha, Damman, Kuwait and Riyadh, is not the same event as this week’s suspension, although it involved the same flight numbers on the same rotation. This report concerns only the current cancellations.
Update, 10 October 2026: suspension extended to 18 October
SriLankan Airlines has since suspended all flights to Riyadh until 18 October 2026, turning what was a two-flight cancellation into a blanket eight-day suspension with a stated end-date, the Daily Mirror and Hiru News reported on Saturday.
In a notice to passengers, the airline said the decision followed its assessment of the recent security incident at Riyadh airport and of prevailing safety and operational conditions. Services will resume, it said, once conditions are assessed as suitable for commercial flight operations — so the 18 October date is the earliest resumption, not a guaranteed one.
This answers the question left open below: the airline has now given a date, having previously declined to say when it expected to resume.
The airline directed affected passengers to contact it on 1979 within Sri Lanka or +94 11 777 1979 from overseas, by WhatsApp on +94 74 444 1979 (chat only), or through their travel agents or srilankan.com.
Update, 12 October 2026: the suspension spreads to a second Saudi route
SriLankan Airlines has suspended all flights between Dammam and Colombo until 18 October, in a statement issued on Monday, the Daily Mirror and Hiru News reported.
The airline gave the same reasoning as for Riyadh — recent security-related developments and the prevailing security situation in Saudi Arabia — said the safety of passengers and crew remained its priority, and repeated that operations would resume once conditions were confirmed suitable for commercial air travel. The passenger contact numbers are unchanged.
This answers the question left open below, which asked whether any other SriLankan destination in the Gulf was affected. One is: Dammam. On the filings available, Riyadh and Dammam are the only two.
Two details are worth drawing out, neither of them stated by either newsroom:
- The end-date is shared, not route-specific. Dammam was suspended on 12 October but until the same 18 October date set for Riyadh on 10 October — so the newer suspension is the shorter one, at six days against Riyadh’s eight. The airline appears to be holding one review date for its Saudi network rather than giving each route its own window.
- Dammam’s airport has itself been hit. Neither filing says why Dammam was added, but King Fahd International Airport was struck in the campaign the Houthis extended beyond Riyadh on 11 October, after the group warned travellers against using any Saudi airport. A projectile had already fallen near the airport on 10 October. That sequence is the context for the route being added; it is not a reason the airline has given.
Readers should not confuse this with the earlier 2026 round of Gulf cancellations noted above, which also covered Dammam among a dozen flights. That was a separate episode driven by regional airspace closures.
Update, 14 October: the first Sri Lankan government advisory
A Sri Lankan diplomatic mission has now issued travel guidance on the disruption — the first in this thread. The Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Jeddah has advised Sri Lankan nationals planning to undertake Umrah to exercise caution when making travel arrangements, warning of possible disruptions to flights to and from Saudi Arabia amid the current situation in the region, the Daily Mirror reported on Wednesday.
The notice is dated 13 October 2026. It urges prospective pilgrims to stay in close coordination with their Umrah group representatives or travel agents when planning journeys, and to ensure their travel plans include contingency arrangements for emergencies or unforeseen circumstances.
This answers a question flagged below — no filing had reported any statement from the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry or its missions on the disruptions. One has now come, and it is an advisory to travellers rather than an account of the situation.
Two things follow that neither the Consulate nor the paper states:
- It is dated five days before the resumption date. SriLankan has suspended Riyadh and Dammam until 18 October. A consular advisory issued on 13 October warning of possible disruption — with no mention of the 18 October date and no indication that services are expected back — is not what a mission issues when a reopening is firm. It is consistent with the reading set out above, that an 18 October resumption looks optimistic rather than scheduled.
- It addresses a different group of travellers. Umrah pilgrims are not the migrant workers who make up the bulk of traffic on the Riyadh and Dammam routes. The Consulate’s advisory therefore does not close the gap identified below concerning the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, whose registered workers remain without guidance.
The Daily Mirror does not name the airports or routes affected, say whether the advisory was issued in response to specific cancellations, or report how many Sri Lankan pilgrims currently hold bookings.
Update, 14 October: the airline states both suspensions itself
SriLankan Airlines has issued a single operational update covering both routes, confirming the temporary suspension of all flights from Riyadh and Dammam to Colombo until 18 October 2026, NewsFirst reported at 12.54 p.m. on Wednesday.
The airline said the decision was taken in view of prevailing conditions affecting commercial flight operations, and that the safety and security of passengers and crew remain its highest priority. Services on both routes will resume once conditions are assessed to be suitable for normal commercial operations. Passengers needing assistance were advised to contact their travel agents, SriLankan offices in Saudi Arabia and Colombo, or the airline’s website.
This is a restatement, not a new decision. The Riyadh suspension was announced on 10 October and the Dammam suspension on 12 October, each separately and each to the same 18 October date; Wednesday’s update consolidates the two into one notice. Readers should not take it as a fresh or extended suspension.
What it does add is standing on the end-date. Until now the 18 October date reached this desk through two individual route announcements. The airline has now restated it directly, four days before it falls, while continuing to make resumption conditional rather than scheduled — the same qualification it used on 10 October. It does not say the suspensions will be extended, and it does not acknowledge the two further nights of attacks on Riyadh recorded on 13 and 14 October.
NewsFirst’s filing carries a 2022 stock photograph of a SriLankan aircraft rather than any image of the disruption.
Not reported
Hiru’s original filing did not say when the suspension began, how many Sri Lankan passengers are affected, or what arrangements are being made for those already booked or stranded in Riyadh. Those gaps remain across all six filings, the airline’s own consolidated update included: none gives a passenger count, says how many flights fall within either suspension window, or sets out a rebooking or refund policy beyond the contact numbers.
None attributes the airport attacks to any party, and none reports a statement from Saudi authorities or from the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, whose registered workers are the main users of both routes. The gap concerning the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry was partly closed on 14 October, when the Consulate General in Jeddah issued an advisory — though it is addressed to Umrah pilgrims rather than to migrant workers.
On whether 18 October would hold — it did not. On 16 October the airline extended the suspension of both routes to 24 October, citing the prevailing security situation, and again said services would resume only once conditions were assessed as suitable. The date recorded in this article’s headline is superseded; the doubt expressed here was well founded. Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport remained closed with no reopening date and the capital was attacked twice more before the extension was announced.
Ada Derana has also filed on both the suspensions and the Consulate’s advisory — the latter under the headline “Sri Lankan Consulate in Jeddah warns of possible flight disruptions for Umrah pilgrims” — but that domain has returned a CloudFront block to this desk for twenty-five consecutive days, so neither filing could be read and neither is cited here.
Sources: Hiru News, Daily Mirror, Hiru News, Daily Mirror, Hiru News, NewsFirst.
