ADEN (Reuters) – Yemen’s national airline resumed international commercial flights from Sanaa airport on Tuesday, Yemeni officials said, after a row between the country’s warring parties over control of the carrier’s funds.
Yemenia Airways had suspended last month the only commercial flights from the Yemeni capital, controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthi group, after the Saudi-backed administration accused the Houthis of blocking airline funds. Houthi officials denied this.
Two officials, including Yemenia sales director Mohsen Haydara, said the flights resumed on Tuesday, and that an airplane that had been stranded at Sanaa airport since last month had taken off early in the day.
Haydara said the airline had scheduled six weekly flights to Amman.
It was unclear if the dispute was resolved.
Sanaa airport was reopened in April 2022 after nearly a decade of war between a Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi group, following a UN-brokered peace deal.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and left 80% of the population reliant on aid, with millions hungry.
The war has shifted to a no-war, no-peace stalemate over the last two years as the fighting has largely stopped, but both parties have failed to renew formally a U.N. truce.
(Reporting by Mohammed Alghobari and Reyam Mukhashaf; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
