SANAA, May 16 (AP): The first commercial flight in six years took off from Yemen’s rebel-held capital on Monday, officials said, part of a fragile truce in the county’s grinding civil war.
The flight by national carrier Yemenia — also known as Yemen Airways — was bound for Jordan’s capital of Amman, according to media outlets run by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. It had 151 passengers on board.
Earlier, the plane had arrived in Sanaa from the southern port city of Aden to pick up the passengers. On touchdown, it was welcomed by a ceremonial “water salute,” according to a video posted online by the national carrier.
The Houthi media office said a return flight, with 60 passengers on board, was expected back in Sanaa from Amman later Monday.
For Wednesday, Yemen Airways announced another flight from Sanaa to Amman and a return one to the Yemeni capital.
The flight is part of the U.N.-brokered, 60-day truce agreement that the internationally recognized government and the Houthi rebels struck last month. The truce, which went into effect on April 2, is the first nationwide cease-fire in Yemen in six years.
The truce accord calls for two commercial flights a week to and from Sanaa to Jordan and Egypt.
The Houthi-held Sanaa is blockaded by the Saudi-led coalition, which backs the internationally recognized government.
The closure of the airport has inflicted major economic and humanitarian damage — thousands of people had lost their jobs as businesses providing services closed down or suffered heavy losses.
Before the blockade, the Sanaa airport had an estimated of 6,000 passengers a day, and more than 2 million passengers every year, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, an international charity working in Yemen.
The U.N. envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, hailed what he described as “constructive cooperation” of the Yemeni government.
“This should be a moment of coming together to do more, to start repairing what the war has broken,” he said in a statement. He urged both parties to implement all truce commitments and “move towards resuming a political process to sustainably end the conflict.”
The flight was initially due to take off on April 2 but a dispute over passports issued by the Houthis had delayed the departure date.
This time, the internationally recognised government allowed passengers with Houthi-issued documents to board the flight.
The government-run SABA news agency said last week that new Yemeni passports would be issued in Jordan for those arriving with Houthi-issued travel documents.
The White House welcomed the flights as evidence of the cease-fire’s “ongoing benefits for the Yemeni people.”
“Yemen today is witnessing its calmest period since the war began, and these flights are an important step in further improving the lives and opportunities for the Yemeni people,” said Adrienne Watson, the National Security Council spokesperson.
