First international commercial flight since Assad's ouster lands at Syria's main airport

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The first international commercial flight since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad landed Tuesday at the Damascus airport.

The Qatar Airways flight landed at Damascus International Airport, greeted by the passengers' relatives and friends inside a terminal building.

Ashad al-Suleibi, head of Syria’s Air Transport Authority, said Qatar had provided assistance in rehabilitating the airport, which had suffered from years of neglect as well as sustaining damages from periodic Israeli airstrikes.

“Honestly, there was a lot of damage from the (Assad) regime to this lively area and this lively airport and also the Aleppo airport,” he said.

Many passengers were Syrian nationals coming come for the first time in more than a decade.

Osama Musalama, who came from the United States, said it was his first visit since before the civil war that started in 2011.

“I lost hope that I would come back to Syria,” he said. “We were waiting for this moment and lost hope, but thank God now the country is back to its people.”

Separately, Jordanian state-run Petra news agency reported that a Royal Jordanian Airlines plane departed for Damascus on a test flight. The head of Jordan's Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission, Capt. Haitham Misto, who was on board the flight with a team of specialists, said that the aim was to evaluate the technical condition of Damascus airport before resuming regular flights.

Since the lightning rebel offensive that unseated Assad a month ago, Arab and Western countries that had cut off relations with the former government have been reopening diplomatic relations with Syria’s new de facto authorities, headed by the Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS.

Syria’s new foreign minister, Asaad al-Shibani, has traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in recent days. The Gulf countries are likely to be key to funding Syria’s reconstruction after nearly 14 years of civil war that preceded Assad's ouster.

On Tuesday, al-Shibani traveled to Jordan to meet with his counterpart in Amman. Jordan's foreign ministry said the officials were set to discuss “mechanisms of cooperation in many areas including borders, security, energy, transportation, water, trade and other vital sectors.”

Under Assad's rule, Jordan had been a main conduit for smuggling highly addictive Captagon amphetamines produced in Syria into Gulf states, which was a point of tension between the two countries.

Syria's new authorities have made a show of cracking down on the Captagon trade, dismantling former factories in locations including the Mazzeh air base in Damascus, a car trading company in Latakia and a factory that once made snack chips in the Damascus suburb of Douma.

“The new situation in Syria has also ended the threats that previously threatened the security of the Kingdom (of Jordan), with regard to drugs and Captagon, and we pledge that this thing has ended and will not return again," al-Shibani said in a joint news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi.

Al-Safadi said that his country supports the Syrian people as they work to “rebuild their homeland on the foundations that preserve its security, stability, sovereignty and unity and fulfill the rights of its people,” adding that Jordan is “ready to provide electricity to our brothers immediately, and we are also ready to work together to provide gas.”

Syria, targeted by stringent Western sanctions, has been in a prolonged economic crisis and Syrians receive only a few hours of state-provided electricity per day.

Omar Akour reported from Amman, Jordan. Abby Sewell contributed to this report from Beirut.

A man who arrived at a first international commercial flight since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, covers himself with the Syrian "Revolutionary" flag as he checks in at the arrival terminal of Damascus international airport, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

A Syrian man hugs a relative at the arrival terminal, after a first international commercial flight since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad landed at Damascus international airport, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

A Syrian passenger who arrived at a first international commercial flight since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, receives a coffee at the arrival terminal of Damascus international airport, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

People wait to receive their relatives at the arrival terminal, after a first international commercial flight since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad landed at Damascus international airport, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Passengers who arrived at a first international commercial flight since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, wait to receive their luggages at the arrival terminal of Damascus international airport, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

A Syrian woman who arrived at a first international commercial flight since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad shouts anti-Assad slogans at the arrival terminal of Damascus international airport, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

People wait to receive their relatives at the arrival terminal, after a first international commercial flight since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad landed at Damascus international airport, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Qatar Airways plane a first international commercial flight since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, landing at Damascus international airport arriving from Qatar, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

People wait to receive their relatives at the arrival terminal, after a first international commercial flight since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad landed at Damascus international airport, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Qatar Airways plane, background, a first international commercial flight since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, lands at Damascus international airport arriving from Qatar, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.

In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.

Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.

If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.

For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.

“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.

Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.

"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.

Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.

Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.

Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.

The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.

“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.

As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.

What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.

The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.

One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.

Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.

“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.

The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.

Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.

“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.

Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.

“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)