Talk:Civilian airports

Are Syria's airports operating?
The impression one gets from the news is that Syria's airports are under constant attacks. In Damascus the Eastern Ghouta is controlled by rebels. (Or was until last week) There is daily fighting on the Airport Road. Aleppo is said to be under siege and almost completely surrounded. The airport is under attack and cut off from the city. How then could the Syrian Air or any airline operate in Syria? (Kind of indicative of the situation is that SANA news agency today boasts about having been able to send a 58 ton "medical shipment" to Aleppo. A great success, considering that Aleppo was the center of the medicine industry in the Middle East.)

Some weeks ago I tried to find if there were any scheduled flights to Syria. The on-line flight booking services did not show anything, possible because Syria in under "sanctions" and credit cards would not work anyway. Tried looking at arrivals and departures from Moscow and some Arab capitals, but hit a dead end. I even had a look at some on-line flight tracker, but all it showed was a train of planes in Turkish Silopi evaiding Syrian airspace.

The Syrian Air website is as bad as everything else in North Korea Syria: last updated in 2011, with a fancy map of all their destinations in the European Union. Flights to the EU are under sanctions, so one must assume that that part of their web page is bullshit. With the Arab League recognizing the SNC/al Nusrah government, one would not expect the services to Arab countries to work much better.

There is no timetable available. Not even a list of destinations. On this page there is something called "Book a Flight", but the link leads nowhere. Well, you can download the airline anthem in both mp3 and rm formats. Fuck, Gaddafi takes better care of his web pages!

Today I hit the Google jackpot. Groups in Russia had been collecting aid for Syria. Something like 2 million rubles ($60k) and 20 tons of medicine, enough for the country for some 15 minutes. SANA announced that "a Russian aircraft carrying relief and medical assistance from the Russian people to the Syrian people arrived on Sunday in Damascus International Airport." They also posted photos on their Facebook page. Turns out the cargo arrived not on a "Russian aircraft", but on a Syrian Air Airbus A320. Most importantly the pictures show the registration number: YK-AKC. This turns out to be the vital clue that solves all the airline mysteries.

A Google search for YK-AKC returns as the second result a link to flightradar24 showing the flight history for the past month. The latest record shows the plane just returning from Kuwait. The list shows about one flight a day to Arab capitals for the last month. Interestingly, the history even shows scheduled flights between King Khaled Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Aleppo. Now, who would be taking these flights? Saudi jihadists on leave?

The flightradar24 list of airplanes flying for Syrian Arab Airlines lists 10 different aircraft. The two Boeing 747s are not in service. Of the six Airbus A320s five are in regular service: YK-AKA, YK-AKB, YK-AKC, YK-AKD, and YK-AKE. The sixth, YK-AKF collided a with a military helicopter after taking off from Damascus on September 20, 2012 and lost the upper half of the vertical stabilizer. May take some time before spare parts arrive. The five remaining Airbuses seem to operate a normal schedule to all the normal peacetime destinations from both Damascus and Aleppo – apart from the Empire of Sanctions, that is.

What I could do is compile a list of all the flight numbers and destinations and reconstruct the weekly schedule. Then again, would it not be easier if Assad's evil airline just published their timetable somewhere!

I also had a look at departures from Cairo. I seems that Egypt Air MS723 left for Aleppo at 00:01 this morning. ...or maybe not. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 06:40, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

P.S. – Another view of Syrian Air planes and routes is available here: YK-AKA YK-AKB YK-AKC YK-AKD YK-AKE -- Petri Krohn (talk) 06:43, 15 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Nothing to add, but wanted to say extra good work here. I'm not sure I follow the details, but it could be a great resource for people with the same questions. --Caustic Logic (talk) 23:09, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

NOW picks up story
Hooray for investigative journalism! Matt Nash, writing for Lebanese NOW has finally managed to find out some of the information presented here two months ago. He would not at first believe the live FlightRadar data, so he followed up with phone calls. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 10:32, 8 June 2013 (UTC)
 * The curious case of flight SYR602 – NOW, June 7, 2013

Missile attacks?
I could not find any information on any foreign airline flying to Syria. This story is about a Russian Nordwind Airlines plane flying over Syria from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt to Kazan, in Russia´s republic of Tatarstan. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 00:02, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
 * 'Missiles fired at' Russian plane with 159 passengers onboard flying over Syria – RT, April 29, 2013
 * Missiles fired at Russian Airliner with 159 on Board flying over Syria. Evasive Maneuver saved Lives of Passengers and Crew – Christof Lehmann, April 29, 2013