Damascus International Airport closed twice in the last eight months. Even so, its monthly passenger numbers grew from 148,000 in May 2026 to more than 243,000 in July 2026 (Syrian Guides).
In a high-risk market, passengers expect clear answers from their airline: will the flight operate safely, and if it does not, what happens next? Airlines answer these questions through their published schedules, the contact details passengers can use to reach them, and their refund and change conditions. Above all, they answer through the sense of trust that their brand creates in passengers' minds. This analysis looks at how those answers were given in Damascus over the last twenty months, from an aviation point of view.
Turkish Airlines started flights to Damascus in 1984 and stopped them in April 2012, after Türkiye closed its embassy in Damascus in March 2012 (bne IntelliNews, Reuters). After the change of government in December 2024, the airline restarted Istanbul-Damascus flights on 23 January 2025. A Boeing 777-300 operated the first flight, with 345 passengers and the airline's chief executive on board (bne IntelliNews, AFP). According to the Turkish Airlines press release of the same day, the airline planned the route with three weekly flights and a 250-seat Airbus A330 (Turkish Airlines). A wide-body aircraft on a route with three weekly frequencies, and senior management on the first flight, suggest that Turkish Airlines wanted to tell passengers and the market that the route was a long-term commitment.
AJet's entry into the market showed that passenger perception also depends on decisions outside the airline's control. Syrian authorities stopped the first flight, planned for 21 April 2025, at the last minute (ch-aviation). Sabiha Gökçen-Damascus flights started on 1 July 2025, and Ankara-Damascus flights on 4 July 2025 (Anadolu Agency).
On 28 February 2026, after the strikes on Iran, Damascus Airport closed for about forty days. During this time, the country's international air links ran through Aleppo (QNA, Al-Hal Net). In the second closure, on the night of 7 June, Syrian Air kept its flights operating by moving them to Aleppo (Syria TV, Travel Radar). The experience of the forty-day closure became crisis management that was in place on time for the second closure.
According to a review on 14 October 2026, Turkish Airlines plans two daily flights from Istanbul until January 2027. AJet plans daily flights from Sabiha Gökçen and three weekly flights from Ankara. In twenty months, Turkish Airlines grew from three weekly flights to two daily flights. Its planned schedule shows that the message of the first flight on 23 January 2025 has lasted.
As of October 2026, Aleppo is the only destination in Syria in the Pegasus network (Pegasus).
Flights from Damascus to international airports reach 231 weekly departures in the third week of January 2027, and two thirds of these departures go to airports in the Gulf countries (flightsfrom.com, 14 October 2026). Four European carriers also fly to Damascus. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency advises operators to avoid the western part of Syrian airspace and anything below 26,000 feet elsewhere, with caution above that level (updated on 1 October 2026; EASA, CZIB-2017-03R20). Figure 1 shows the weekly departures of the airlines that fly to Damascus in two weeks: 19 to 25 October, the week before the winter season starts, and 18 to 24 January, in the middle of the winter season.
Weekly departures from Damascus by airline
Flights per week, sorted by January 2027.
19 to 25 October 202618 to 24 January 2027
Figure 1. Weekly departures from Damascus by airline: 19 to 25 October 2026 and 18 to 24 January 2027. Source: flightsfrom.com, 14 October 2026.
Passenger trust is shaped far beyond the area that an airline can control. Syria in Transition, with analytical support from the Clingendael Institute, ran a face-to-face survey of 900 people in Damascus, Rural Damascus and Homs. The share of people who said they feel safe in their area was 67% in early February 2026. In mid-April, after the Iran war and the forty-day airport closure, it fell to 38%. The question measures the sense of safety in daily life, a different matter from safety in air travel, and the survey covers three governorates only.
Passenger numbers at the airport still grew by about 64% from May to July (SANA, Syrian Guides). The published data does not separate arriving and departing passengers, so this growth cannot be linked to people leaving the country. In the same month, Aleppo had about 47% more arriving than departing passengers (Syrian Guides). A large population movement forms the background to this growth. According to a UNHCR estimate dated 1 October 2026, about 1.8 million Syrians have returned since December 2024, 713,000 of them from Türkiye (UNHCR, Arab News). It is not known how many of them travelled by air. For passengers travelling out of necessity, trust depends on the belief that the flight will operate and that, if it does not, someone will show them what to do.
When an airport closes, passengers need options before the cancellation news arrives: a full refund, a free date change or an alternative airport. The channel that carries this information matters as much as its content. Damascus has offered useful examples over the last two years.
Being where the passenger already looks. In a crisis, the channel that reaches passengers is the one people in the region already use every day, and Syrian Air's choice of Telegram fits local habits. During the June 2025 disruption, Syrian Air announced its cancellations and the move to Aleppo on its Telegram channel (SANA). When Damascus reopened in April 2026, it directed passengers to the same channel for flight information, while the Civil Aviation Authority announced the reopening on its social media account (Al-Hal Net, SANA). In June 2025 Syrian Air also opened a temporary website with constantly updated flight times, for passengers who do not use social media (SANA). In a crisis, channels work best together. The message has to be the same and up to date on every channel the passenger can reach.
Answering the question "what should I do?" In June 2025, the conflict between Israel and Iran closed the air corridors to Damascus. Syrian Air announced that it would operate from Aleppo, and put on buses from Damascus to Aleppo Airport for every flight, leaving eight and a half hours before departure (Enab Baladi). For the passenger, the most useful information is how to get to the aircraft.
Answering rumours with concrete data. The Civil Aviation Authority twice corrected social media reports that Damascus Airport had closed. On 18 June 2025, in a statement on its Facebook account, it said that some air corridors had closed, while the airport itself stayed open to aircraft in an emergency (Enab Baladi). On 21 July 2025, the authority's deputy head, Amjad Nakhkhal, said that the airport was operating normally: 28 flights had landed the day before, and 29 were expected that day. He asked the media to rely on official sources (SANA, Enab Baladi). In uncertain times, a concrete and verifiable answer to the question "is it open or closed?" leaves little room for a rumour to spread.
Announcing the official channel before a crisis. Crises also attract fraudsters. In March 2026, during flight cancellations in the Middle East, fake social media accounts copied Qatar Airways, Etihad and Emirates. They sent private messages to passengers who had asked for help, promised compensation and collected personal data (Travel Radar). Qatar Airways (Qatar Tribune) and Etihad (Gulf News) said that they would never ask for passwords, one-time codes or payment details. LEAV Aviation, which flies from Düsseldorf to Damascus, warned passengers on its home page about a website that sold tickets in its name without permission. A change of channel carries its own risk. On 5 October 2026 Syrian Air unveiled a new visual identity, and the chief executive of Syrian Aviation Holding said that a new reservation system would launch in early November (SANA). Changes like this can give fake websites and accounts an opening. Airlines benefit from announcing their official address and contact channels clearly, in one place, before a new system goes live.
Events in Damascus over the last twenty months point to consistency as the main way airlines manage passenger perception in a high-risk market. The reading offered here is that a schedule that runs without interruption, even at low frequency, builds trust more reliably than a programme that keeps opening and closing. For a route that is filed in the schedule but does not open, a short explanation protects trust that silence loses. Airlines also benefit from checking regularly that their flights appear under the right name in distribution channels and with consolidators, and from announcing their official sales channels clearly. In a high-risk market, the third question in the passenger's mind is who really sold the ticket.
About this analysis. Semra Erener, Principal Consultant at Rock 'n Roll CEO, has worked in aviation for more than twenty years. This is an independent analysis. Neither the author nor Rock 'n Roll CEO has a consulting relationship with any of the airlines mentioned. The schedule data comes from flightsfrom.com, queried on 14 October 2026. The data is at aggregator level and has not been checked against a primary schedule source.
