Syria: First international flights land after Assad fall

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

It was also the first time a Qatari commercial crafthas flown to Syria in 13 years. Most international carriers suspended service to Syria after Assad’s brutal clampdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011 sparked the Syrian Civil War.

The flight landed shortly after the airport’s first commercial take off took place, heading for the United Arab Emirates.

A spokesperson for Jordan’s flagship carrier, Royal Jordanian, also confirmed that a flight would be leaving the capital Amman for Damascus later on Tuesday for a test flight.

Airport under assessment

Syria’s Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission chief, Captain Haitham Misto, said he would be aboard that flight in order to evaluate the preparedness of Damascus airport to restore full international traffic.

As rebels swept into the capital in the early days of December, workers and military personnel abandoned 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 amphetamines from Syria through Jordan to other Gulf States.