Azerbaijan conducts first test flight at Zangilan International Airport VIDEO

Azerbaijan has conducted the first test flight at Zangilan International Airport.

Azerbaijani Consul-General to Los Angeles Nasimi Aghayev made the remarks on his official Twitter account.

"First test flight at Zangilan International Airport. By September 2022 the airport should be put into operation. It’s the second airport built by Azerbaijan in liberated areas within the last 20 months," the diplomat tweeted.

The airport is designed to serve 200 passengers per hour. It will be able to receive passenger and cargo planes with a takeoff weight of 400 tonnes. VIP halls, cafés, medical service points and office rooms will be launched inside the airport's terminal.

Zangilan International Airport will be the country's first airport in East Zangazur economic region. In April 2021, the ground was broken for the construction of the airport. Almost 80 per cent of the infrastructure project has been completed since then. The liberated lands' civil aviation infrastructure will be expanded even further with the opening of the third airport in Lachin District in 2024.

By 2024, three airports will be operational in Azerbaijan's liberated lands. Fuzuli International Airport, dubbed the "air gate to Karabakh", was the first to open in October 2021. The world-class airport was built in eight months by Azerbaijani and Turkish companies. The airport, which has been approved by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), has already received a number of domestic and international flights, including one carrying Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the airfield's inauguration in 2021.

The revival of Zangilan District followed its liberation from Armenian occupation in October 2020. Armenia occupied internationally recognised Azerbaijani territories, including Zangilan, in the early 1990s during a bloody war that lasted until a ceasefire agreement was reached in 1994. During the war, Armenia illegally occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan's sovereign territories. Over nearly three decades of occupation, the occupied lands have been razed to the ground and turned into "ghost towns" by Armenians. In Aghdam, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Jabrayil districts not a single building survived the devastation and looting. Because of the scale of destruction, Aghdam was called "Hiroshima of the Caucasus".

The decades-long conflict between the two countries erupted into a full-fledged war on September 27, 2020, when Armenian forces stationed on occupied Azerbaijani territory shelled Azerbaijani military positions and civilian settlements. Azerbaijani forces liberated over 300 settlements, including the cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Shusha, during 44 days of counter-attack operations. Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia signed a tripartite statement on November 10 to end the war. Armenia also returned to Azerbaijan occupied Aghdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin districts, according to the statement.

Shortly after the war, the Azerbaijani government launched a massive restoration and reconstruction campaign in the liberated lands, including Zangilan.

First test flight at #Zangilan International Airport. By Sep. 2022 the airport should be put into operation. It’s the 2nd airport built by #Azerbaijan in liberated areas within the last 20 months. pic.twitter.com/mzILbk3a3V

— Nasimi Aghayev (@NasimiAghayev) July 5, 2022