The first flight since the fall of Bashar al-Assad on December 8 took off from Damascus Airport, headed to Aleppo. Forty-three individuals, including journalists and staff, were on board an Airbus belonging to Syrian Air. Prior to his fall, Assad boarded a plane at the same airport to travel to the Russian Khmeimim base. The Syrian army subsequently abandoned the airport, which had not seen any flights since. Airport employees are now painting the 1946 Syrian flag on planes as a symbol of the people’s uprising, replacing the old flag in the airport terminals.