Syria received the first two of eight Airbus A320 commercial aircraft on Sunday, marking a key milestone in its broader national fleet modernization strategy aimed at upgrading domestic airport infrastructure and expanding Damascus’s international route network.
1+Syria’s General Authority for Civil Aviation and Air Transport announced over the weekend that the initial aircraft touched down at Damascus International Airport. The intake of the eight passenger jets forms part of a comprehensive master contract to develop, expand, and operate the Damascus international hub, inked with the Qatari conglomerate Urbacon Holding Company (UCC).
The Qatari-funded aviation rollout follows Washington’s landmark decision last week to officially remove Syria from the U.S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Syria had been placed on the blacklist in 1979 as one of its original designees, following decades of state support for armed terror proxies, including Hezbollah and various ‘Palestinian’ factions.
1+Alongside the arrival of commercial passenger jets, Syria’s removal from the terrorism list has enabled the return of international credit card processing for the first time in 15 years. In a viral clip published last week by the Governor of the Central Bank of Syria on X, Syrian leadership was seen paying a dining bill at a Damascus restaurant using a standard electronic credit card—a routine everyday transaction that had been entirely blocked under decades of international banking isolation.