Commercial flights between Turkey and Syria resume after 13 years

Syrian families joyfully return to Damascus on first commercial flight since Assad's fall, signaling renewed diplomatic relations and hope for Syria.

Commercial flights between Turkey and Syria resumed on Thursday (January 23, 2025) after 13 years with a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Damascus.

Turkish media showed Syrian families draped in their national flag singing pro-opposition songs and cheering as they prepared to board flight TK0846 to Damascus. Passengers continued their celebrations inside the plane, singing the uprising anthem “Hold your head up high, you are a free Syrian.” One man sobbed while waiting for takeoff.

“I missed Syria and am happy to fly back,” said Fuad Abdulhalid, who has lived in Turkey for 12 years.

Another passenger, Nail Beyazid, expressed hope as he prepared to visit his home for the first time since fleeing from Syria.

“We are very happy that [Syria] was liberated, and the situation is very good,” Beyazid said. “We had a house, a factory. We also had cars, which are gone now. We are going back to take a look.”

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Since the lightning rebel offensive that ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad a month ago, Arab and Western countries that had cut off relations with the former government have been reopening diplomatic relations with Syria’s new de facto authorities, headed by the Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS.