Damascus, April 11, (dpa/GNA) – A plane from war-torn Syria’s state carrier left for Russia on Sunday, marking the resumption of civil air transport between the two allied countries after a halt of more than a year due to the pandemic.
In March 2020, commercial flights between Syria and its ally, Russia, were suspended due to an outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
Early on Sunday, a Syrian Airlines flight took off from Damascus airport for Vnukovo Airport in Moscow and was scheduled to return to the Syrian capital in the evening, the airline’s ground operations manager Wael al-Hadari told Syria’s state news agency SANA.
“There will be a weekly flight from the Damascus International Airport to Russia while complying with measures against coronavirus,” he added.
The number of passengers on the first flight was not given.
Russia is a major military ally of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s devastating civil war, which erupted in 2011. With Russian help, al-Assad’s forces have managed to retake key strategic areas from rebels.
GNA