State-owned Syrian Air will double its fleet to six planes before the end of the year thanks to Qatari investment, the company’s director general told The National, as the post-Assad government privatises some of the country’s bloated public enterprises.
However, the airline’s workforce has been slashed by 40 per cent this year, with further staff cuts planned, Anwar Akkad said in an interview this week, insisting the reorganisation was aimed at bringing the company up to international standards.
Syrian Air has around a dozen aircraft, but only three are currently functioning after decades of underinvestment, international sanctions and civil war. Mr Akkad declined to provide an estimate of how many staff have been laid off.
“Over the next six months there will be planes that will join Syrian Air and we will be at least at double the current fleet,” Mr Akkad said. He declined to specify the type of aircraft and whether the planes will be bought or leased.
Financing comes through a “partnership” with Qatar's UCC Holding, which is headed by the Qatari-Syrian businessman Samer Al Khayyat. He has emerged as one of the most powerful figures in Syria's postwar economic rise.
“We have resorted to outside capital. Other companies are interested,” Mr Akkad said, without giving details. He said the additional planes would “boost existing lines” to the region and Europe before expansion into North Africa by the end of 2027.
Last August, the Syrian government signed an initial deal for $250 million in financing to buy up to 10 Airbus A320 narrow-body planes for Syrian Air, with a consortium led by UCC Holding. The company was awarded a concession last year to build a new terminal at Damascus Airport, as part of multibillion-dollar contracts.
The terminal is one of the few promised infrastructure projects on which work has started. It is being carried out by Turkish companies Kalyon Insaat and Cengiz Insaat. Syria remains in a delicate stabilisation phase and few new projects have started under the new government.
However, Syrian Air in December became part of the Syrian Aviation Holding Company, established by a presidential decree in the same month to streamline the public aviation sector. Mr Akkad, a veteran of Etihad Airways, was appointed the company’s chief executive.
The holding company, which is currently government-owned, will soon become partly owned by private investors, Mr Akkad said.
“We are working on two parallel lines,” Mr Akkad said. One is “revitalising Syrian Air in a correct way”, and the second is rebuilding Syrian aviation, he said. “Once Syrian aviation is fully established, Syrian Air would be standing completely on its feet. Otherwise we would not have advanced a lot”.
The post-Assad government has been offering concessions, particularly to Gulf states and Turkey, as a way to accelerate the reconstruction process after the 2011-2024 civil war. This is focused particularly on infrastructure, telecoms and transport, as well as housing and commercial projects.
The current government has inherited a public sector with at least one million employees, out of a population of 24 million, and tiny budgets that fall far short of the $220 billion the World Bank says is needed to rebuild the country. Syrian Air is one of a multitude of state enterprises regarded as overstaffed and suffering from underinvestment since well before the civil war.
Mr Akkad said restructuring started with what he called “the human factor”. He added: “From there, we proceed to automation and digitalisation.” Qualified people “will manage the digitalisation and adopt international systems and applications”.
Staff numbers at Syrian Air “are changing every day”, Mr Akkad said, describing the company as undergoing “major restructuring”.
“We reduced around 40 per cent of the workforce and will reduce a bit more; then we will grow again with the people we will invest in, plus the qualified people who we will attract.”
