HISTORY: SYRIAN AIRWAYS was established in autumn 1946, with two propeller aircraft and started to fly between Damascus, Aleppo and Deir ez-Zour and Qamishli. Operations began in 1947. Financial difficulties caused the suspension of services in 1948, but after receiving government support operations were resumed in 1951. In February 1958, Syria and Egypt decided to unite under the leadership of president Gamal Abdel Nasser, and the two countries became provinces of the United Arab Republic (UAR). The merger between Syrian Airways and Misrair, the state-owned airlines of Syria and Egypt came as a consequence of this political union. The airlines merged on December 25, 1958, to form United Arab Airlines (UAA). At the time of the merger, Syrian Airways was still only a small regional airline while its Egyptian counterpart, Misrair, was the largest and oldest airline in the Arab world, operating an extensive network out of Cairo, the region's metropolis.
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