However, before reaching the main road that leads to Sanaa, coalition forces would have to cross some 10 km (6 miles) of industrial and residential areas where they could face fire from both inside the city and surrounding Houthi-held towns.
UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told Reuters after the airport capture that the coalition's plan was "to squeeze" the group but declined to discuss military operations.
The Western-backed coalition intervened in the war in 2015 to restore a government ousted from the capital by the Houthis. Coalition forces quickly retook the southern city of Aden and smaller towns on the coast, but since then neither side has made much progress in the war, widely seen as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Al-Khokha, located 90 km (56 miles) south of Hodeidah, was one of the few gains by the coalition in the three-year war and is now one of the resupply centres for troops on the frontlines.
The UAE has set up large military facilities in al-Khokha, and in neighbouring al-Mokha, guarded by Yemeni and Sudanese troops alongside tanks and Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries.
The UAE is leading the offensive on Hodeidah with a 20,000-strong force consisting mostly of Yemenis gathered from southern separatists, Red Sea coastal plain fighters and followers of a nephew of the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
These forces have captured a series of western coastal towns to form a narrow strip of control from the bases to the port. But the road is often blocked by Houthi attacks.
"The Houthis block the road to Hodeidah to isolate (coalition) troops around the airport. Then UAE Apache helicopters intervene to unblock the road. But as soon as they are gone, the Houthis come back again," one military source said. "It is a cat-and-mouse game that never ends."
