How do the Houthis use the Yemen's Airlines as a source of intelligence?

A security expert and an official in the General Authority of Yemeni Aviation revealed that the Iran-backed Houthis use the authority and the Yemeni Air Company as a source of purely intelligence information on all departures to and from Yemen, whether they are citizens or officials in the legitimate government or others.

Yahya Al-Juma'ei said in a commentary on a satellite channel, that the Yemeni Airlines office is still under the authority of the Houthi militia, including the issuance of tickets, wondering about the government’s silence about this, and the failure to address international bodies to pay flight traffic fees to the legitimate Yemeni government, which estimates $5 million per month.

Al-Juma'ei explained that the failure to transfer the Yemen Airways office to the liberated areas, due to the complicity of Houthi leaders within the legitimate government, are working together to keep the situation in the liberated areas unstable in security.

"The possibility of transferring the Yemeni Airways office to Aden is very simple, and it needs to sign a resolution, some projectors, and a number of computers". he said.

He pointed out that the new Minister of Transport was able to transfer the air operations center to Aden, but that the management of tickets and ground operations in Yemeni Airlines is still managed from Sanaa.

He indicated that the fees for transit revenues since the Houthis amounted to a quarter of a billion dollars, equivalent to 3 to 5 million dollars per month, the revenues of which go to the Houthis.

On the dangers of Houthi management of Yemeni airlines and airspace crossing, he revealed that the internationally recognized Yemeni state are exposed to the Houthis, because the militia know the names of the passengers and their numbers, and described them a day before their departure or return to and from Yemen.

He stressed that the Houthis use Yemeni airlines as a kind of pure intelligence, calling for the speedy transfer of the rest of the administrations to the liberated areas.