Syrian Air, the government-owned national airline of the Syrian Arab Republic pressed a second Airbus A340-300 into service two days ago on international routes out of the airline's hub in Damascus.
YK-AZB operating its inaugural rotation to Delhi, India. Photos by Uday Chhabra | AeroNewsX
Syrian Air was founded at the end of World War II in 1946 as Syrian Arab Airlines to fly domestic routes throughout the country, as well as Hajj pilgrimage flights to other Middle Eastern nations such as Saudi Arabia with piston-engined Douglas DC-3 and DC-6 aircraft. The airline underwent a rapid expansion in the 1960s and 1970s, and entered the jet age with Super Caravelle aircraft flying to the airline's first European destinations, as well as expanding the existing Middle Eastern network. The airline continued to grow and prosper over the next two decades with a mix of Western made and Soviet-built jet aircraft.
However, in 2012 fortunes changed when the airline was crippled by sanctions relating to its parent company, as a result of the Syrian Civil War, by both the European Union and USA forcing it to suspend all of its European flights. This also prevented the airline from adding any new Western-built aircraft to its fleet, however this did not prevent Syrian Air from adding its first secondhand Airbus A340-300 registered YK-AZA in February 2017. Today, the airline still maintains an extensive international network around the Middle East, as well as Russia using its Airbus A320-200 and Airbus A340-300 aircraft, the latter of which is mainly used on flights to Dubai-International and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
In recent months, the resolution of the Syrian Civil War, and relaxation of travel restrictions to Syria prior to the global COVID-19 pandemic led Syrian Air to acquire a second Airbus A340-300 registered YK-AZB in March 2020. This particular aircraft previously flew with Olympic Airways of Greece and entered storage for several years before being purchased by the Syrian flag carrier in March of this year and was recently painted in Syrian Air colours.
On the 21st June 2020, against all odds regarding the COVID-19 travel restrictions, Syrian Air pressed YK-AZB, their second A340-300, into service on a repatriation flight from the airline's hub in Damascus to New Delhi, India as flight RB1533 in order to return Indian nationals from Syria. The jet returned to Damascus again two days ago as RB1534, quietly marking a significant milestone for the national airline of Syria.
The jet is expected to be deployed on Syrian Air's regular A340 passenger routes from Damascus to Dubai, Damascus to Kuwait City and Damascus to Sharjah when travel restrictions regarding the coronavirus are fully lifted.
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