The government of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Damascus on Wednesday said that it expects Damascus International Airport to reopen within days, which would be a surprising and unexpected development.
It had been closed since the dramatic events of HTS-led forces entering the capital, and Assad and his top officials fleeing the country. The airport's director Anis Fallouh said it will reopen "in the next few days" - according to the AFP.
"God willing, the airport will reopen as quickly as possible because we are going to work flat out," Fallouh said. "We can quickly resume flights through Syrian airspace."
For now, however, it seems unrealistic that any flights will land or take off from the airport given that Israeli warplanes have been bombing the country non-stop for at least 72 hours. This has included the targeting of at least 350 Syrian Army sites, as well as facilities for the production of chemical weapons.
With Israeli warplanes roaming the skies, commercial flight travel over Syria remains highly dangerous. There's also the fact that the various al-Qaeda factions now in control of Syria have gained access to at least some of Syria's remnant anti-aircraft missile arsenal, such as MANPADS.
There have also long-been NATO-supplied shoulder-fired missiles all around Syria, supplied to the 'rebels'. Below appears to be evidence of this...
NATO bonanza!https://t.co/p5ScKQOFel
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) December 10, 2024
Only Cham Wings, a private Syrian airline and Syrian Air, the country's national airline, had been continuing to operate up to the dramatic events of the last ten days.
But Al Jazeera has noted of the status of these defunct airlines, "Aircraft maintenance official Samer Radi said there were currently 12 aircraft on the ground, one of which had been stripped of its equipment by looters during the takeover by opposition forces."
It's unclear whether these carriers will be reestablished, or a timeline for potential operations. At this moment the country and population are also starved of fuel, after days ago an Iranian tanker en route to Syria turned around as it became clear the Assad government was in collapse.
Before the war, British Airways and Emirates had frequent flights to and from Damascus. But immense hurdles remain in what is still basically a war zone and questions over the fact that a US-designated terror organization is now running the show in Damascus.
The HTS jihadists who seized control of Aleppo International #Airport have reportedly destroyed all whiskey and alcohol bottles in its duty-free zone. It seems that the enforcement of Sharia law has already begun in #Aleppo. pic.twitter.com/81lxrz0b1O
— Greco-Levantines World Wide (@GrecoLevantines) December 2, 2024
"So far, the operations of Syrian Air have been extremely restricted," explained one industry analyst. "Everybody would want to reopen flights into Damascus, which obviously is a significant destination for the Gulf."
"Airlines will have to individually go and do a damage assessment, a liability assessment and a review of what's happened, what's workable, what's permissible, as well as what's functioning and what is not," the analyst continued.
