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Operations at Saudi airports back to normal after tech outage

In a statement posted late on Friday by Saudi Arabia’s airports company, Matarat Holdings, it confirmed that operations are back to normal

by Gareth van Zyl

July 20, 2024

Passengers can expect operations to be back to normal at Saudi Arabia’s airports, following Friday’s major global tech outage.

Airports across the globe, including the likes of Berlin International and Hong Kong, were interrupted on Friday amid a software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike that knocked out computers running Microsoft Windows.

In a statement posted late on Friday by Saudi Arabia’s airports company, Matarat Holdings, it confirmed that operations are back to normal.

“Referring to the statements issued by the subsidiaries (Riyadh Airports, Jeddah Airports, Dammam Airports, and the Secondary Airports Group) today, Friday, 19 July 2024, regarding the extent of the impact of the global technical malfunction on several airlines at the Kingdom’s airports, Matarat Holding announces the return of operational activities to their normal state at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, and the Secondary Airports Group,” read the statement.

The company went further to say that passengers must check with their airlines before heading to the airports “to learn more about their flights and new schedules.”

بيان صحفي:

عودة العمليات التشغيلية إلى طبيعتها في #مطارات المملكة بعد تجاوز الخلل التقني العالمي. pic.twitter.com/tzQQV5WAwC

— مطارات القابضة (@MATARAT_KSA) July 19, 2024

Matarat, which is a closed joint stock company, manages 27 airports across the kingdom, including Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport and Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport.

The company is tasked with transforming and leading privatisation efforts in the industry.

When the CrowdStrike glitch first started impacting major airports across the globe on Friday morning, King Khalid International Airport acknowledged that it too had been affected.

In a statement on X, the airport acknowledged a “malfunction affecting the operational systems of several airlines at King Khalid International Airport.”

But later on Friday, the airport turned to X to say that its operations, for both domestic and international flights, had returned to normal.