Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu has said Turkey will resume regular flights to Damascus in several months after the installation of airport surveillance radar, NTV reported.
Uraloğlu told NTV that a team from the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMİ), which is responsible for air traffic services in Turkey, traveled to Syria to conduct technical inspections at both the Damascus and Aleppo international airports. According to their findings, there are no airport surveillance radar systems at these two airports.
“We will install radar systems there. We are planning to make a flight from Turkey [to Damascus] in the coming days,” said the minister, adding that it will be three to four months until there are regular flights from Turkey to Syria when the radar systems are operational.
Uraloğlu said the first flights will be visually guided due to the lack of technology, adding that Turkey’s priority is to install radar systems, ensure airport security and find an interlocutor in the Syrian transitional government, established following the fall of Bashar al-Assad by an alliance of rebel forces on December 8.
He said a great need will be met when a connection is established between İstanbul and Damascus.
The first commercial flight after the fall of the al-Assad regime was made on January 7. A Qatar Airways plane landed in Damascus with passengers, most of whom were Syrians, and a Syrian Airways plane flew to Sharjah Airport in the United Arab Emirates with 145 passengers.