Eastern Syria gateway under repair
Maintenance and rehabilitation works at Deir ez-Zor Airport have reached an advanced stage, the General Civil Aviation Authority said on 28 April 2026, with overall progress between 80 and 85 percent. The authority said it is preparing the airport to operate again as an international facility serving the residents of the eastern governorates.
A delegation from the authority carried out a field inspection of the runway, the tower, and the passenger halls, and reviewed the remaining steps before the airport can receive commercial traffic.
Scale of wartime damage
The site sustained more than 80 percent destruction during years of conflict. Spokesperson Alaa Salal, director of government communications at the authority, said in a quote on the visit that "the airport was destroyed by more than 80 percent, even the runways needed maintenance."
Beyond the runways, the control tower, the arrivals and departures halls, and the existing perimeter wall all required full rehabilitation. Older fortifications and trenches that had been built inside the airport perimeter also had to be removed before reconstruction could begin.
Two parallel work tracks
Construction crews have been on the ground for more than two and a half months. Salal said the team is acting under the directive of authority head Omar Hassri, and that the work is being run on two parallel tracks: first, maintaining the airport and preparing it for service; and second, communicating with operating airlines to reactivate the airport as an international facility serving the eastern governorates.
What comes next
According to Salal, crews have already completed roughly 80 to 85 percent of the construction work. The authority indicated that talks with operating carriers are advancing alongside the construction schedule, but no firm reopening date has been announced. The remaining tasks span the runway, the tower, and the passenger halls, the same areas highlighted in the inspection.