Dreams took flight as I joined joyful Syrians on the first Emirates service from Dubai to Damascus in more than a decade on Wednesday, as Syria seeks to forge a path to prosperity following the end of its deadly civil war.
But passengers eager to reunite with loved ones in their homeland found the threat of violence still looming large as word spread of an Israeli air strike as they touched down at Damascus International Airport.
Israel had struck Syria’s Defence Ministry headquarters, just miles from where our plane taxied, highlighting the dangers that hostilities in the region pose to hopes of renewal.
Syrian grandmother Rabab Al Omar had flown all the way from California. And now, Damascus greeted her with news of fresh violence. What must she be thinking?
Ms Al Omar had allowed herself to smile as the flight cruised towards Damascus. But that gentle expression soon turned into anguish when I asked her about her last memory of Syria, just before she left at the peak of the civil war.
“Sad faces,” she said, visibly emotional.
Seated beside her son, she was among hundreds of passengers returning home after years in exile, on Emirates’ first direct flight from Dubai to Damascus since operations were suspended in 2012.
Earlier on the flight, I had spoken to 18-year-old Mohammad Falah, who left Syria as a baby and was returning for the first time.
“I can’t wait to set foot in Syria,” he told me, his cheeks glowing with anticipation.
But like Ms Al Omar, he was met with the sobering reminder of how fragile peace remains even as Syrians try to consign memories of the brutal Assad regime to the past.
There was a sense of longing and nostalgia among those on board the flight. An embroidered Syrian flag spilled from one seat into the aisle.
Another cradled a tired child leaning over an iPad adorned with sparkling Syrian flag stickers. Across the aisle, a group of jubilant passengers posed for photos as the cabin crew humoured them, sensing the weight and wonder of this historic journey.
“Home is but an irreparable feeling,” the Canadian poet Anne Carson once wrote.
For these Syrians, the return held both promise and pain: hope for reunion and sorrow for all that had been lost, or still was.
As these thoughtful, hopeful faces exited the airport towards their city, I boarded the return Emirates flight to Dubai. My assignment was done. Their journey was just beginning.
But as the plane climbed eastward, its cabin dimmed for the night, I couldn’t help but dwell on the weight of return – the emotional geography of going home.
For Rabab Al Omar, it was about reliving the past. For young Mohammad, it was about reclaiming his roots.
Together, they hold out hope that a better future can be secured for them and future generations of proud Syrians, even as the bombs still fall.
