First international flights land after Assad’s fall – DW – 01/07/2025

A Qatar Airways flight landed at Damascus International Airport on Tuesday, marking the first time a commercial aircraft has landed in the Syrian capital since the fall of former President Bashar Assad a month earlier.

It was also the first time a commercial plane from Qatar has flown to Syria in 13 years. Most international airlines suspended service to Syria after Assad’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011 sparked the Syrian civil war.

The plane landed shortly after the airport’s first commercial take-off, bound for the United Arab Emirates.

A spokesman for Jordan’s flagship airline, Royal Jordanian, also confirmed that a plane would leave the capital Amman for Damascus later on Tuesday for a test flight.

Airport under evaluation

The head of Syria’s Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission, Captain Haitham Misto, said he would be on board that flight to evaluate Damascus airport’s readiness to restore full international traffic.

As rebels swept into the capital in the early days of December, workers and military personnel left the airport as the fall of Assad’s regime became imminent.

Several leaders of Syria’s interim government were in Jordan on Tuesday to discuss normalizing ties and reducing the flow of highly addictive Captagon amphetamine from Syria through Jordan to other Gulf states.

What’s next for Syria?

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es/kb (AP, AFP)