The flight from Djibouti carried 158 Yemenis who had fled the fighting in their country.
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The Houthi movement, hailing from a Shi’ite sect in Yemen’s far north, seized Sanaa and much of the rest of the country in September in what they have called a revolution.
Sources in Yemen’s government confirmed the move, though there has been no official announcement, and Yemen’s exiled information minister said on Tuesday that commercial flights would be diverted from the capital to the southern port of Aden.
A Red Cross statement said seven Huthi rebels were transferred from Aden to Sanaa.
Government loyalists regained control of Aden last month.
One Yemeni military source told the French news agency that Riyadh has sent in dozens of tanks, armored vehicles and personnel carriers during the past 48 hours via Wadia, a border post in northern Yemen.
Since March 26, a Saudi-led military coalition has supported the loyalists with airstrikes to stop the advance of the Houthi rebels, who last year took over the capital Sanaa and pressed south into second city Aden earlier this year.
Tribal sources said the reinforcements were headed towards the provinces of Marib, east of Sana’a, and Shabwa, to the southeast, “to expel Al Houthis and their allies” from these two provinces, where heavy fighting has been ongoing.
The United Arab Emirates has deployed a brigade of ground troops, along with tanks and armored vehicles, to assist pro-government forces fighting in Yemen.
Anti-Houthi forces continued to make gains on Thursday, fully surrounding the provincial capital of Lahej province, Zinjibar, north-east of Aden and massing their forces before an expected push toward the central city of Taez.
The Saudi casualty brings the number of people killed in shelling and skirmishes along the Saudi frontier with Yemen to at least 50 since the coalition campaign began on March 26.
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The war in Yemen has killed almost 4,000 people, half of them civilians, while 80 percent of the 21 million population needs aid and protection, the UN says.
