Disrupted flights in Saudi restrictions rise to 153, 22,636 passengers affected: CAAB's updated tally

The number of flights disrupted on air routes between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia has risen further because of the ongoing restrictions at Saudi airports. According to a new tally by the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), operations of a total of 153 flights on direct and transit routes have been disrupted. A total of 22,636 passengers of those flights have suffered.

CAAB gave the information in a notice on Wednesday (October 28). Among the cancelled and suspended flights, 76 are direct flights and 77 are transit flights. The disruption of these flights has created uncertainty over the passengers' journeys.

The restrictions are in force at various airports in Saudi Arabia, including the capital Riyadh and Dammam, because of attacks by Yemen's armed Houthi group. Its impact has also fallen on air communication with Bangladesh.

According to CAAB, among the disrupted direct flights are 33 of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, 20 of Saudia Airlines, 10 of US-Bangla Airlines and 10 of Riyadh Air.

Among transit flights, IndiGo's flights were disrupted the most — 30. In addition, operations of 14 Emirates flights, 9 Qatar Airways flights, 8 flydubai flights, 8 Air India flights, 7 Salam Air flights and 1 EgyptAir flight were disrupted.

In the previous tally, the number of disrupted flights was 146 and the number of affected passengers was 22,241. In Wednesday's new tally, both numbers have increased — flights to 153 and passengers to 22,636.