Air Serbia operates humanitarian Damascus flight

NEWS FLASH

Air Serbia operated a charter flight to the Syrian capital of Damascus this morning carrying humanitarian aid to those affected by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the country, as well as Turkey, on February 6. The Airbus A319 aircraft, registered YU-APM, departed Belgrade this morning with six tonnes of cargo, primarily food and medicine. Additional flights will be organised in the coming days with some 100 tonnes of supplies to be delivered to Syria in cooperation with the Serbian Red Cross, UNICEF and other humanitarian organisations. “This is the first batch containing six of 100 tonnes of food and other supplies that have been donated to Syria. I am certain that together with Air Serbia, as well as other airlines, we will organise the transport of aid to the people of Syria in the coming days and weeks”, Serbia’s Defence Minister, Miloš Vučević, said. Air Serbia's CEO, Jiri Marek, saw off the special flight this morning. "We are very proud to be a part of this project with the aim of delivering humanitarian aid to Syria, which has recently been hit by the catastrophic earthquake. Organising flights to Damascus at this time is a very complex process. However, Air Serbia has previous experience in repatriation, evacuation and humanitarian cargo flights. We would like to thank all our partners for their support and patience in the process of gaining necessary permissions for this flight to be carried out successfully", Mr Marek said. There have been no scheduled flights between Belgrade and Syria since 2008, when Jat Airways last operated services to Damascus via Beirut, holding fifth freedom rights on the short inter-Middle East sector. In 2018, Syrian carrier Cham Wings applied for a permit to run scheduled three weekly rotations between the two capitals, however, it was denied a permit.