Worldwide flights resumed at Damascus airport for the primary time for the reason that fall of Bashar al-Assad, together with the primary direct flight from Doha in 13 years, to a celebration environment within the arrivals corridor.
One lady propped up a speaker enjoying a patriotic music, whereas two others set off inexperienced smoke flares as crowds clapped, chanted and sang.
“That is the primary time I got here via this airport since 2005 and felt proud to be Syrian,” stated one passenger, Bashar al-Hussein, initially from the Syrian metropolis of Daraa, who stated he had travelled from his present dwelling in Dubai to Doha with the intention to be on the primary direct flight into Damascus.
Qatar, a robust opponent of Assad, had halted flights 13 years beforehand after the rebellion in opposition to his rule.
The airport reopening was about greater than journey, he stated. Arriving on the airport beneath a brand new authorities, the place passengers not felt beneath surveillance and employees refused to take bribes, was a brand new expertise. “From the airport to the final door, you’d find yourself paying about $200,” he stated. “Even individuals who had executed nothing flawed needed to pay.”
In a reminder of life beneath Assad’s safety state, he added, some passengers on his flight had realized solely at passport management that the earlier regime had introduced costs in opposition to them.
Most of the floor employees, airline staff and cabin crew for Syria’s Cham Wings and SyrianAir had returned to work, though not less than one talked about they had been but to be paid.
Safety forces in all-black fits or camouflage gear milled across the airport entrance, whereas others aligned to the brand new authorities, led by the Islamist group HTS, staffed immigration factors and airport safety. A muezzin sang the decision to prayer from a balcony, whereas members of Syria’s civil defence, often called the White Helmets, appeared on.
Ali Reda, a SyrianAir pilot, was cheerful after his return to work. The bullet holes within the air site visitors management tower had been fastened, he stated, in addition to a number of different repairs wanted when the airport was looted throughout a 12-hour interval when it was deserted by forces loyal to Assad after the dictator fled. A lot of these now in charge of the airport had by no means executed this type of work earlier than, he stated.
“The safety equipment modified, however the civil aviation employees and floor employees who had been working day after day have simply gone again to doing their jobs,” he added. Reda had come to work on his time without work to assist with the primary flights from Damascus. He praised the brand new safety measures on the airport as “according to worldwide requirements”.
A passenger who gave her identify solely as Basma, stated she was filled with nervous pleasure earlier than boarding her first flight to Doha, the place she would transit to go to her daughter in Brisbane. She had booked just a few days in the past, she stated, avoiding a two-hour automotive journey to Beirut airport, which beforehand was the one method to entry most worldwide airways.
“It’s so a lot better to journey via Damascus airport than coping with the Lebanese border guards. They might at all times humiliate us after we crossed,” she stated. “Syrians usually are pleased to have Damascus airport again.”
Workers from SyrianAir and Cham Wings, each that are nonetheless beneath US Treasury sanctions for transporting mercenaries, weapons, and different types of trafficking beneath Assad, had been optimistic that new flight routes might quickly open up.
The airways at the moment fly often to the Emirates, and Cham Wings employees stated they had been restarting flights to Kuwait, Baghdad and Erbil, whereas Turkish and different worldwide airways had been anticipated to restart direct flights to Damascus.
The US Treasury paused choose sanctions with Syrian authorities establishments earlier this week, saying that may enable the availability of public providers and humanitarian help. Reda was hopeful {that a} new authorities in Syria meant the sanctions on SyrianAir might quickly be lifted, permitting it to revive the fleet.
“Being on the sanctions record had destroyed our fleet as we couldn’t get spare elements for the planes – our fleet is down to 2 planes from the 18 we had earlier than,” he stated. Lifting sanctions might additionally imply resuming direct flights to Europe for the primary time in years, he hoped – “I miss my layovers in Europe – in Manchester”.
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