Passengers arrive at the Aleppo International Airport in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, Feb. 19, 2020. The first flight from Syria's capital Damascus to the northern city of Aleppo took off on Wednesday for the first time in eight years. (Xinhua)
DAMASCUS, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The first flight from Syria's capital Damascus to the northern city of Aleppo took off on Wednesday for the first time in eight years.
Officials and reporters were onboard the flight, which had been suspended due to the presence of rebels in the western countryside of Aleppo, which threatened the international airport of Aleppo.
Over the past two months, the Syrian army launched a wide-scale offensive in Aleppo and the nearby Idlib province in northwestern Syria to secure the Damascus-Aleppo highway, known as the M5.
In the process, the army managed to secure the airport of Aleppo after taking much of the western and northwestern countryside of Aleppo, which is known as the industrial capital of Syria.
Following the first fight, the Aleppo airport will start flights to Damascus and Egypt's Cairo, before expanding to other destinations.
