Israeli strikes shut down Yemen's Sanaa airport, cause $500m in damages

Israeli airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport have forced the facility to suspend all flights indefinitely, causing an estimated $500 million in damages, according to Yemeni aviation authorities.

Khaled Al-Shaif, the airport's general director, announced on Wednesday that all inbound and outbound flights were halted until further notice following "massive damage" from Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday.

"Due to the Zionist aggression on Sanaa International Airport and the resulting extensive destruction, all types of flights to and from the airport have been suspended," Al-Shaif told the Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV channel.

Initial damage assessments indicate that terminal buildings, critical equipment, and the catering facility were destroyed.

Aircraft hit, buildings damaged

Al-Shaif said six aircraft were hit, including three belonging to Yemenia Airways, which now has only one functioning plane, currently in Amman, Jordan. These planes had been used to evacuate critically ill and wounded individuals for treatment abroad, he said.

The attack, part of a wider wave of strikes, also targeted key power stations in the capital and surrounding areas, as well as a cement factory in Amran Province, Al-Masirah reported.

The Israeli army confirmed the strike, stating it was in retaliation for a missile attack by the Houthis on Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport earlier this week.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the operation had rendered Sanaa Airport completely inoperative.

The latest damage compounds years of decline in Yemen's civil aviation sector. From 2016 to 2022, Sanaa Airport was almost entirely shut down, except for limited UN humanitarian flights, due to the ongoing war between the internationally recognised Yemeni government and the Houthi movement.

In April 2022, a UN-mediated truce allowed for the limited reopening of the airport, enabling weekly Yemenia flights to Amman. Still, expansion of routes remained stalled due to political and logistical complications.

Before the war, Yemen operated around 14 airports, including six international ones. But by 2022, operational capacity had fallen to 28 percent of pre-war levels, with passenger traffic collapsing from 2.7 million in 2014 to just 653,000 by late 2022. Sanaa Airport’s capacity dropped to only 3.5 percent of what it handled in 2014.

Tuesday's strike is likely to reverse even these modest gains, as Yemenia Airways has now suspended all flights to and from Sanaa.

Meanwhile, Yemen's Houthi-controlled areas are experiencing a severe fuel crisis, following US airstrikes on the Ras Issa oil terminal in western Yemen.

The Houthi-run Yemen Petroleum Company announced this week that it had activated an emergency plan to manage dwindling fuel supplies.

The company said US strikes on 17 April and again on 25 April destroyed all loading platforms and fuel pipelines at Ras Issa, disabling the facility and damaging a gasoline tanker, the Seven Pearls, injuring three Russian crew members.

The crisis has triggered near paralysis in daily life in Sanaa and other Houthi-controlled cities, with streets largely empty of vehicles and widespread public anxiety over a return to the fuel shortages that gripped the country six years ago.