'Proud to be Syrian': passengers delight as Damascus airport reopens

International flights have resumed at Damascus airport for the first time since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, including the first direct flight from Doha, Qatar, in 13 years, greeted by a party atmosphere in the arrivals hall.

- Ruth Michaelson, Obaida Hamad

"This is the first time I came through this airport since 2005 and felt proud to be Syrian," said one passenger, Bashar al Hussein, originally from the Syrian city of Deraa, who said he had travelled from his current home in Dubai to Doha in order to be on the first direct flight into Damascus. Qatar, a strong opponent of Assad, had halted flights in 2012 after the uprising against his rule.

The reopening of the airport was about more than travel, he said. Arriving under a new government with passengers no longer feeling under surveillance on arrival and staff refusing to take bribes was a new experience, he explained.

"From the airport to the last door, you'd end up paying about $200," he said. "Even people who had done nothing wrong had to pay." In a reminder of life under Assad's security state, other passengers on his flight had only learned while at passport control of the charges brought against them by the previous regime.