News – Yemen: The spokesperson for Yemen’s General Authority of Civil Aviation, Sultan Faraj Al-Madani, has stated that the Saudi-led aggression remains the sole obstacle preventing the resumption of normal flight operations to and from Sana’a International Airport, despite the airport’s full technical and operational readiness.

Al-Madani stressed that ongoing restrictions imposed by the aggressors continue to block commercial air traffic, noting that coalition control extends beyond Sana’a Airport to include Aden and Seiyun airports, where it dictates travel destinations and enforces a single operating carrier. He described these measures as a blatant violation of Yemen’s national sovereignty and international civil aviation regulations.

Meanwhile, Mazen Al-Soufi, Director General of Air Transport, revealed that Yemen has lost approximately 96% of its air traffic as a result of the blockade and ongoing air aggression, deepening the country’s humanitarian crisis. He noted that passenger traffic through Sana’a Airport in 2024 did not exceed 152,000 passengers, limited to a single destination, compared to more than two million passengers in 2014, highlighting the catastrophic collapse of the civil aviation sector.

For his part, Sana’a International Airport Director Khaled Al-Shaif accused the Saudi regime of deliberately disabling the airport through direct targeting, airspace bans, and the withholding of flight authorizations, despite the airport meeting all technical and operational requirements.

Al-Shaif cited a recent case in which a humanitarian air ambulance was forced to wait for more than a week for clearance from the coalition’s Riyadh operations room to land at Sana’a Airport. The authorization was never granted, underscoring the coalition’s obstinacy and complete disregard for humanitarian considerations.

Sana’a International Airport has been subjected to repeated closures and restrictions since the onset of the US-Saudi aggression on Yemen. Although limited operations briefly resumed following the UN-brokered truce in April 2022, renewed suspensions have once again intensified humanitarian suffering amid Yemen’s ongoing crisis.