在利雅得航空（Riyadh Air）办公室所在地的一座机场遭到导弹袭击的次日，这家沙特阿拉伯新航空公司的英国籍老板希望平息员工的恐惧。“如果我们对安全性没有信心，绝不会运营航班，也不会让人员在某栋大楼里工作，”首席执行官托尼·道格拉斯（Tony Douglas）本月早些时候在一份致全公司员工的内部便签中写道。他说，该航空公司的总部“照常开门营业”，尽管几英里外刚刚发生了一起袭击，摧毁了一架飞机，并造成3人死亡，其中包括其姊妹航空公司的一名飞行员。
The day after a missile hit the airport where Riyadh Air’s offices are based, the British boss of Saudi Arabia’s new airline wanted to soothe staff fears.“We would never operate a flight or have people work in a building if we were not confident in its safety,” Chief Executive Tony Douglas wrote in a companywide note earlier this month. The airline’s headquarters remained “open for business as usual,” he said, despite an attack just a couple of miles away that destroyed an aircraft and killed three people, including a pilot at its sister airline.
在24小时内，支持那次打击的邻国也门胡塞武装对首都发动了新一轮导弹袭击，在同一座机场造成十几人死亡、航站楼部分坍塌，并导致数百人受伤。
Within 24 hours, the Houthi militia in neighboring Yemen behind that strike launched a fresh missile barrage on the capital, killing over a dozen people at the same airport, collapsing part of the terminal building and leaving hundreds more injured.
根据《华尔街日报》查阅到的电子邮件，这位首席执行官给员工的下一条消息通知大多数人在次日留在家中。
The CEO’s next message to staff told most to stay home the following day, according to emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
胡塞武装已将商业航空宣布为打击目标，与该武装不断升级的冲突已经颠覆了沙特阿拉伯的航空业，以及日益依赖其领空进行过境运输的全球航空公司的运营。
The escalating conflict with the Houthis, who have declared commercial aviation a target, has upended Saudi Arabia’s airline industry and the operations of global carriers that increasingly rely on its airspace for transit.
暴力活动尤其打击了利雅得航空的发展前景——该公司于今年夏天开始商业飞行，旨在成为该王国长期经济雄心关键的一部分。该航空公司已多次改道航班，并在最后一刻取消了其他航班。追踪数据显示，一些航班在等待活跃威胁解除期间，盘旋等待的时间长达两个小时。在起飞仅仅几个月后，该航空公司已将所有飞机从其大本营撤离，并在过去两周内几乎停止了所有飞行。
The violence has particularly dampened the fortunes of Riyadh Air—which started commercial flights this summer, aiming to be a key part of the kingdom’s long-term economic ambitions. The airline has repeatedly diverted flights and canceled others at the last minute. Some have been placed in holding patterns for as long as two hours while waiting out active threats, tracking data shows. Just months after getting off the ground, the airline has evacuated all aircraft from its home base and has halted almost all flying over the past two weeks.
该航空公司最近几天运营的少数特种航班要么降落在沙特阿拉伯的吉达，要么降落在距离利雅得200英里（约合322公里）的一个小型机场，乘客则需搭乘数小时的地面交通工具前往首都。利雅得航空的一位发言人没有回应置评请求。
The handful of special flights the airline operated in recent days landed either in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, or at a small airport 200 miles from Riyadh, with passengers ferried on an hourslong ground journey to the capital.A spokesman for Riyadh Air didn’t respond to requests for comment.
今年本应见证沙特王储穆罕默德·本·萨尔曼（Mohammed bin Salman）对其经济雄心的关键支柱之一启动：一家运送富裕游客的高端航空公司。它还旨在帮助该国赶上阿拉伯联合酋长国和卡塔尔的竞争对手，在过去三十年中，凭借其地处欧洲和亚洲之间的便利位置，这些国家的航空公司已成为全球航空旅行的主导力量。
This year was meant to see the launch of a key pillar in Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambition for his economy: a high-end airline to transport wealthy tourists. It was also designed to help the country catch up with rivals in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, whose airlines have become dominating forces in global air travel over the past three decades, thanks in part to their convenient location between Europe and Asia.
利雅得航空的姊妹航空公司沙特阿拉伯航空（Saudia）并未奉行这一策略，而是将业务重点放在该王国石油行业工人的巨大需求以及前往那里朝觐人员的需求上。该公司的运营同样被胡塞武装的袭击所颠覆，胡塞武装在10月8日的一场袭击中杀死了一名飞行员并摧毁了一架空客A320飞机。暴力活动不仅震碎了沙特阿拉伯的航空梦想，还给全球最大长途航司阿联酋航空（Emirates）等企业带来了压力，因为海湾地区的航空公司正在努力克服飞行限制以及对其航班靠近伊朗战争的担忧。
It is a strategy Riyadh Air’s sister carrier, Saudia, hasn’t pursued, instead focusing its operations on the massive demand from workers in the kingdom’s oil industry and from those traveling there for pilgrimage. Its operations have likewise been upended by Houthi attacks, which on Oct. 8 killed one of its pilots and destroyed an Airbus A320 aircraft. The violence isn’t only rattling Saudi Arabia’s aviation dream, but also putting the likes of Emirates, the world’s biggest long-haul carrier, under pressure as Gulf airlines battle to overcome flight restrictions and anxieties about their flights’ proximity to the war in Iran.
今年夏天，尽管由于导弹在地区交错而推迟了原定于3月进行的试运营，利雅得航空的首席执行官仍表现出乐观态度。道格拉斯6月在伦敦接受采访时表示，按时为其飞机获取新座椅比在中东各地展开的冲突更让人头疼。
This summer, Riyadh Air’s CEO struck an optimistic tone, despite having delayed a soft launch set for March as missiles crisscrossed the region. Douglas, in an interview in London in June, said getting new seats for his aircraft in time had been more of a headache than the conflict playing out across the Middle East.
四个月后，随着该公司的主要机场面临长期关闭，利雅得航空的员工转而在医院做志愿者，机场袭击事件的受害者在那里接受治疗。波音公司上周交付的最新飞机不得不被重定向到吉达。几天前，该航空公司将最后一架波音787梦想客机（每架价值超过1.3亿美元）从首都撤出，此前该机在受到导弹袭击轻微损坏后停飞。
Four months later, with the airline’s primary airport facing a prolonged closure, Riyadh Air staff have instead been volunteering at hospitals where victims of the airport strikes were treated. Its newest aircraft, delivered by Boeing last week, had to be redirected to Jeddah. That came days after the airline withdrew from the capital the last of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners—each valued at more than $130 million—after it was grounded following light damage from a missile strike.
该国今年余下时间的远景也显得黯淡，因为伊朗官员曾向调解人表示，德黑兰将对美国和以色列的任何新一轮袭击做出回应，目标将包括机场等民用目标。《华尔街日报》此前报道称，该航空公司下个月还将面临战争险保单的续签。
Prospects for the rest of the year are looking grim, too, as Iranian officials have told mediators Tehran would respond to any renewed U.S.-Israel attacks with strikes aimed at civilian targets, including airports. The airline is also facing a renewal of its war-risk insurance policy next month, the Journal has reported.
这家航空公司定于周日全面重新起航，其官网上列出的取消航班仅有4个——而自10月10日机场关闭以来，每天取消的航班超过30个。
The carrier is set to restart in force on Sunday, with only four flights listed on its website as canceled—compared with over 30 scrapped each day since the airport closure on Oct. 10.
*恢复半定期飞行将附带一个重大前提：利雅得航空将不会飞往利雅得。根据该航空公司的网站，取而代之的是，该航空公司正在使用其本周早些时候测试的一条航线，将飞机从伦敦、伊斯兰堡和开罗等地飞往盖西姆省的一座机场。从那里可以免费乘坐4个半小时的大巴前往沙特首都。现场将提供免费的水、果汁和零食。
The return to semiregular flying would come with a major caveat: Riyadh Air won’t be flying to Riyadh. Instead, the airline is using a route it tested earlier in the week, sending aircraft from places such as London, Islamabad and Cairo to an airport in Al Qassim province, according to the carrier’s website. From there it is a free 4½-hour bus journey to the Saudi capital. Complimentary water, juice and snacks are provided.
联系本杰明·卡茨（Benjamin Katz，邮箱ben.katz@wsj.com）和斯蒂芬·卡林（Stephen Kalin，邮箱stephen.kalin@wsj.com）
Write to Benjamin Katz at ben.katz@wsj.com and Stephen Kalin at stephen.kalin@wsj.com