UPDATE - 1st flight from Damascus to Aleppo lands after Assad's fall

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS; REVISES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE

By Ethem Emre Ozcan, Mehmet Burak Kocaoglu, and Ahmet Karaahmet

DAMASCUS, Syria (AA) - The airport in Syria’s capital Damascus on Wednesday resumed flight operations following the fall earlier this month of the Baath regime.

A Syrian Airlines passenger plane from Damascus Airport landed at Aleppo, marking the first flight between the two cities – the country’s largest – since the regime's collapse.

The airport, which ceased flights after the regime's collapse on Dec. 8, reopened after preparations were completed.

Bashar Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime groups took control of Damascus on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party regime, which had been in power since 1963.

*Writing by Muhammed Enes Calli and Beril Canakci in Istanbul