Syrian Air in 2026: The Restart of Flights After the Fall of Assad

History and positioning

During the harshest years of the conflict, Syrian Air's fleet was almost entirely grounded, with most aircraft idle for lack of maintenance and spare parts caused by sanctions. On January 7, 2025, a few days after the fall of the Assad government, Syrian Air and the private airline Cham Wings operated on the same day the first passenger flight departing Damascus after the change of regime, both bound for Sharjah.

The fleet

At the time of the restart, Syrian Air had only two operational Airbus A320-200s, while another six A320-200s and two A340-300s remained idle because of the condition they had been left in during the conflict. In August 2025 the airline signed a 250 million dollar agreement for the acquisition of ten new Airbus A320s, a step that signals the intention to rebuild the fleet from scratch rather than merely repair existing aircraft.

Routes and network

The network expanded rapidly over the course of 2025: after the Sharjah flight, Syrian Air reopened a weekly Damascus-Medina link on January 20, relaunched the Amsterdam route on July 9, now operated three times a week, and also flies to Moscow and several Gulf destinations, with Copenhagen among the planned new openings. In the same period another twelve international airlines, including Turkish Airlines, flydubai, Royal Jordanian, Air Arabia and flynas, resumed operating to Syria.

It is an airline in the midst of rebuilding rather than a mature carrier, useful for anyone who needs to reach Damascus for family, professional or humanitarian reasons rather than for a leisure trip planned well in advance. Given how quickly routes, schedules and the conditions for accessing Syrian airspace change, it is always best to check the status of the flight and any diplomatic restrictions of your home country in the days immediately before departure, rather than relying on information gathered months earlier.