Air traffic from the airport of the Afghan capital Kabul may partially resume on Friday. Domestic flights are expected to resume by then, and an Afghan aviation official told the Al-Jazeera news channel.

 

It will take some time before flights to and from destinations abroad will also be possible in Kabul, the al-Jazeera source expects. The news channel previously reported that a technical team from Qatar is mapping the damage to the airport.

The Gulf state’s foreign minister confirmed on Thursday that it is working with the Taliban to reopen the airport as soon as possible. “Hopefully, we’ll get some good news in the coming days,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said at a press conference in Doha.

The airport has been on the scene of a chaotic evacuation in recent weeks. Western countries removed many tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan after the extremist Taliban overran the capital. The last foreign soldiers left the airport early this week.

When the team from Qatar arrived in Kabul on Wednesday, it was also the first plane to arrive there since the evacuation ended. Much of the infrastructure at the airport is damaged and out of order.

An insider said repairs at the key airport should allow for the resumption of humanitarian relief and evacuations. The minister called it “very important” that the Taliban show that they are willing to let people leave.