Cairo, 4 January 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Damascus International Airport is scheduled to resume international flights next week, according to a Syrian aviation official.

"We announce the start of receiving international flights to and from the Damascus International Airport from January 7," said Ashhad al-Salibi, head of the Syrian Civil Aviation and Air Transport Authority, on Saturday.

Operations at the airport were suspended last month after the facility was robbed and vandalized following the overthrow of Syria's long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad, sources at the Transport Ministry said at the time. 

Al-Salibi told Syria's official news agency SANA that aviation authorities are in the process of complete rehabilitation of the two airports in Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo to be able to receive flights from all over the world.

Earlier this week, the Qatari airline, Qatar Airways, said it would restart flying to Damascus as of Tuesday. 

Domestic flights at the Damascus airport resumed on December 18, ten days after al-Assad, who ruled Syria for more than two decades, fled the country as Islamist-led rebels advanced on Damascus in a lightning offensive.

Since al-Assad's ouster, Syria's new rulers have been struggling to re-establish security and revamp facilities in the country, which has been devastated by more than a decade of war.

Photo: EPA