Syria Resumes International Flights with Qatar Airways

‍DALLAS — The first international commercial flight since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, a Qatar Airways (QR) Airbus A330-202, reg A7-ACM, from Doha, landed Tuesday at the Damascus International Airport (DAM).

"We announce we will start receiving international flights to and from Damascus,” said Ashad al-Suleibi, head of Syria’s Air Transport Authority International Airport. “We reassure Arab and international airlines that we have begun rehabilitating the Aleppo and Damascus airports with our partners' help so that they can welcome flights from all over the world.”

Al-Suleibi said that Qatar had assisted in rehabilitating the airport, which had suffered from years of neglect while also sustaining damage from periodic Israeli airstrikes.

Arab News posted a brief video of rehabilitation efforts at the airport:

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), the Syrian state-owned news agency, said that DAM was evacuated on December 8, and all flights were halted amid the fall of the Assad regime last month.

As per Jordanian state-run Petra news agency, a Royal Jordanian Airlines (RJ) plane departed for Damascus on a test flight.

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