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ECONOMIC CRISIS

Air traffic controllers at Beirut airport say they will stop working nights beginning in August

Air traffic controllers at Beirut airport say they will stop working nights beginning in August

An aerial picture taken on March 7, 2020, shows a view of Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut. (Credit: Patrick Baz/AFP)

BEIRUT — Lebanese air traffic controllers announced late Tuesday that they will halt their night shifts starting Aug. 1 due to worsening working conditions at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, the state-run national News Agency reported.

Here’s what we know:

    • Representatives of air traffic controllers, who oversee landings and take-offs from Beirut, decried in a statement their teams being severely understaffed, preventing the employees from taking days off or implementing staff rotations.

    • They added that the declining number of air traffic controllers at the airport are due to retirement, emigration or resignations stemming from difficult working conditions, the NNA reported.

    • Faced with this dire situation, air traffic controllers announced that they will no longer work at night, between 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., as of August 1. They also demanded a reduction in the number of flights scheduled during the day “in line with the work capacity of air traffic controllers.”

    • In 2021, an anonymous source at the Beirut International Airport had told L'Orient-Le Jour that 30 percent of the staff had left their jobs. Civil Aviation Director General Fadi El-Hassan had denied in October 2021 reports that the Beirut airport is at risk of having to suspend nighttime activity due to a shortage of air traffic controllers. 

BEIRUT — Lebanese air traffic controllers announced late Tuesday that they will halt their night shifts starting Aug. 1 due to worsening working conditions at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, the state-run national News Agency reported.Here’s what we know:    • Representatives of air traffic controllers, who oversee landings and take-offs from Beirut, decried in a...